Combat Evolved
by Cossacks250
Summary: When an alien coalition attacks the human race, one super soldier called Eve is all that is left of a special task force. She is mankind's last hope, but she will soon discover something that has been in the universe since the age of man began. Some OC'
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Wall.E or the Halo series.

**BnL. The Buy n Large corporation. It started out like the first years of the United Nations in the middle of the 21st**** century. The corporation was small with only two countries, America and Russia. Then as the 22****nd**** century began to creep closer to humanity, a variety of countries joined including the U.K, France, Germany, China, India, Israel, Brazil and Japan. At the turn of the last century, BnL was announced a mega corporation with one hundred and ten countries part of the Buy n Large corporation. By the end of the first decade of the 22****nd**** century, one hundred and forty countries were part of BnL. However, Buy n Large wasn't the only thing expanding. The human population had expanded greatly in the past century and a half**

**2075: Population of Earth is 15.6 billion. The moon is colonized with 12 million inhabitants.**

**2100: Population of Earth is 20 billion. Mars is colonized with 8 million inhabitants. Moon's inhabitants is 17 million.**

**2150: Population of Earth is 26.5 billion. Military spaceport built on Phobos. **

**2200: Population of Earth is 32 billion. Construction of military space stations over Earth begins.**

**As the years went on, the human population was increasing more and more. New planets had to be colonized. BnL took lead of the colonization of other worlds. **

**2212: Population of Earth is 36.3 billion. Space research facility constructed on Deimos. Construction of first settlements on Io begins.**

**2250: Population of Earth is 40 billion. The moons' colonized zones are now bustling dome cities. Mars' colonized zones are also bustling dome cities.**

**2275: Population of Earth is 45 billion. Many new inhabitants are moved to Io, Mars and the newly colonized planets Carme and Rhea. Holographic sun screens are used on the domes' ceilings to provide heat for the plant life in these domes.**

**2300: BnL star liners discover a second sun far beyond Pluto. First faster than speed of light ships used to take human settlers to Kurar, a large Earth-like planet. BnL construct a large military base on Enceladus.**

**2330: Human population colonize many planets around the second sun such as Eucia, a forest planet the size of Australia, Vorgra, a small Mars-like planet, and Takra, another Earth like planet the size of Jupiter.**

**2402: Takra now has sixty major cities across It's surface. Military space stations constructed above Takra and Kurar. Callisto and Europa are colonized. Eucia II is discovered. **

**2405: First colonization settlements on Eucia II constructed. Military and space research facilities constructed on Eucia II. Takra's moons, Arkar, Lupo and Descendus become major spaceports. **

**2447: Takra's population is 20 billion. It is the human's third most colonized planet. Tura, Tura II and Ganymede are colonized. Construction of space stations over Takra, Lupo and Vorgra begin. Vorgra's moon, Idlem, is colonized. **

**2463: Takra's population is 27 billion. There are now one hundred major cities over the planet's surface. Kurar becomes a main resource planet for the human race after the discovery of It's iron that is twice as strong as Earth's iron. **

**2472: Lupo becomes a major planet after construction of It's metropolis, Korton, is complete.**

**Humanity now colonizes half of Takra. Mars becomes first city planet of humanity.**

**2491: Largest space research facility constructed on Takra. Carme and Rhea become first planets to have underground settlements. Construction of space stations over Idlem begin. **

**2500: BnL begins construction of military space ships. BnL's army is given the title United Earth Space Corps (UNSC).**

**2515: A new planet, twice the size of Earth, is discovered. Construction of military scientific research, military and space research facilities on the planet begins. Humanity had advanced very far in technology. With many planets under human colonization, humanity looked like it was to continue It's never ending quest to discover the secrets of the universe. **


	2. A strange mission

Takra. March 3rd, 2551.

Takra had become a great part of the human colonization. Because it was much like Earth, it was suitable for human habitation. After the first few years, the small towns had grown into bustling cities. The capitol of the cities on Takra was New Milboar, a city the size of Rhode Island. It had over sixteen million inhabitants. There were many other major cities spread out over Takra. The biggest was New Milboar times two. It was called Rudom. It had over twenty million inhabitants and the highest concentration of BnL scientific research and it even had a military base right in the middle of the city.

The leader of Takra was president Reuven Peres, an Israeli who oversaw the colonization of Takra. He worked in a large office building several hundred feet down the road from the military base.

Reuven was in his office, signing some important documents on his desk. Something to do with construction. Nothing new as that was always going on pretty much everywhere else in the colonized zones. Just then, a knock came on the door.

"Enter," Reuven said.

The door opened. A man a high ranking army uniform was standing there.

"Ah, general Stanley. Good to see you. Please sit down," Reuven said.

Stanley sat down on a chair in front of Reuven's desk.

"So what can I do for you?" Reuven asked Stanley.

"The commanders of the UNSC need these papers ready for the construction of the planet's defence controls system," Stanley replied. He showed no emotion in his answer.

"Yes, I am just finishing them," Reuven said.

He picked up the piece of papers and used a stapler on his desk to staple them together. After he did this, he handed the papers to Stanley.

"Thank you, Reuven," Stanley said. "Finally, you have got these done,"

"I did tell UNSC commanders that we had delays with getting these papers ready," Reuven protested.

"The UNSC does not accept excuses!" Stanley hissed. "Do not keep us waiting next time we need you!" Reuven nodded.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. Stanley grunted as he stood up and walked towards the office door.

"_Some people are so useless,"_ he thought as he opened the door.

A soldier was standing there. He moved to let Stanley pass. Stanley just walked past the soldier without saying thank you.

"Your welcome," the soldier mumbled when Stanley was out of earshot.

He walked into the office. He saw the annoyed look on Reuven's face.

"They get more annoying with each new building," the soldier said to Reuven.

"They sure do," Reuven replied. "What can I do for you?"

"Command needs to see you at the base," the soldier answered.

Reuven looked quite shocked about this. Not that it was his first time to the military base, he had been there loads of times. What was shocking about it was that it wasn't part of his schedule or that he hadn't been informed of the visit to the base.

"Okay," Reuven said, in an uneasy tone. "Uh…will I need any documents?"

"No," the soldier replied. "Command said not to bother, they need you down there now,"

Before Reuven could say another word, the soldier left the room. Seeing no other option; Reuven followed.

The two used a platform lift to take them down to the ground floor. When they reached the ground floor, they walked towards the buildings entrance. The doors were remote controlled to let people in or out when they were entering or leaving the building. The doors opened to allow the two to leave.

Reuven held his arm out in front of his eyes because the sun was beaming down on the city. Most of the city's skyscrapers were over ninety stories tall. After Takra had been colonized, the cities buildings grew as fast the cities themselves grew. Reuven worked in the busiest office building in the city. It had over seven thousand workers in it alone.

"We'll drive in the jeep," the soldier said.

He and Reuven walked towards the busy main road, which was packed with futuristic cars, trucks and lorries. A jeep that had a Mercedes-like front, no roof and a large machine gun on the jeep's pickup truck rear. There was a soldier on the back of the jeep, manning the machine gun.

Reuven and the soldier got in the jeep. The soldier started the engine and drove the jeep down the road. They were taking a special route for military vehicles only that ran along next to the pavement. As they drove down the road, Reuven was seeing all the city sights.

Along the sides of the tall buildings were small platforms that stuck out as far as seven feet. Several metres above the platform were big wires that ran across the sides of tall buildings in the city. A bullet train, connected to the wires, stopped next to the platform. Several people got off whilst other got on. Within about a minute, the bullet train sped off again and disappeared behind a neighbouring skyscraper.

Reuven snapped out of his sight seeing when the vehicle jolted to a halt.

"WATCH IT, IDIOT!" the soldier, driving, yelled.

He had to stop because some careless driver, in a future version of a SUV, pulled out in front of the jeep.

"Christ. Learn how to drive," the soldier on the jeep's gun said as he watched the SUV driver drive away.

The driver moved the jeep forward further down the street. After a few minutes, it turned left at an intersection down another main road. After another two minutes, the jeep pulled up outside a large steel remote controlled door.

A guard walked forward to Rueven's side of the jeep.

"Good to see you, sir," the guard said. "Command's got something they really need to show you,"

"Door unlocked?" the driving soldier asked the guard.

"Yeah. Door's unlocked. Go ahead in," the guard answered.

He moved out of the way as the jeep drove towards the steel door. This door was also computer controlled, so it opened to let the jeep in.

Reuven found himself going down a dark tunnel. Several lights on the ceiling turned on, lighting up the whole tunnel. The jeep drove further and further down the tunnel. Finally, after several minutes, the jeep came to a halt in a car park full of other jeeps, exactly the same as the one Reuven was in. Reuven, the driving soldier and the soldier manning the gun got off the jeep and walked through another remote controlled door. Like many visits before, he once again found himself in a large control room. A large computer screen was on the wall on the other side of the room. Several control and computer panels were below this computer screen. Many other control panels, used for radar and contact with the planet's space stations, were scattered round the control room. The soldier led Reuven through the room. The other soldier had some other important duties, so it was just he soldier and Reuven. The two came to a halt at a steel door. Engraved on it was _High Command. _The soldier pressed a large blue button on the wall next to the door, which made it slide open. Reuven stepped inside the room.

The room was almost as large as the control room. The only difference was that this room also had a large computer screen on the wall and a computer panel below it, but it didn't have control panels scattered around the room and there was a desk in the middle of the room with two chairs, one behind the desk and one in front of the desk. On the other side of the room was another door that led onto a balcony that overlooked a large training area. Two men in general uniforms were standing at the desk.

"Thank you, corporal," one of them said. "That will be all,"

The soldier nodded and walked away, closing the door behind him.

"Please sit down," one of the general's said.

Reuven sat down in the chair in front of the desk. One of the generals walked over to the computer panel below the computer screen.

"I suppose your wondering why you're here?" the general at the computer panel asked.

Reuven nodded.

"We need your permission to use BnL battle group 65 to go to Umeda." the general replied.

"Umeda!" Reuven exclaimed. "Isn't that the planet with only thirty percent land?" he asked.

"Yes," the general, who was standing at the desk, answered. "We need you to give the order to send the battle group to Umeda."

"So what do you need them for?" Reuven asked.

"A few months ago, construction of a major spaceport was finished on Umeda," the general, at the control panel, said. "Then, just yesterday, we lost all contact with them. At first, we thought it was because of communication, but they would have fixed it by now. So, we needed to send the nearest battle group to investigate and make sure everything is okay," the general concluded.

"So, why did you choose battle group 62?" Reuven asked the generals.

"We chose this battle group because it was the closest to Umeda," the general at the desk answered. "We also chose it because it has two of the finest ships. The '_Imperial Glory_' and the '_Saviour_'. Both of these ships are perfect for this task."

"Why are sounding like this is serious?" Reuven asked.

"Because it could be," the general asked. "There could be a serious situation going on at Umeda,"

Reuven sighed.

"Okay," he said. "When do you need them out there?"

"Today," the generals said together, in unison.


	3. Unknown attack

Two hours later

After the conversation in the military base, Reuven had ordered the five BnL battleships of battle group 62 to be sent to Umeda. The order reached the battle group and they immediately set off to discover what the problem was.

BnL battleships were almost like BnL star liners, except that the top of the ship was a huge dome and in that dome was a barracks, a hospital and a meeting room to give orders for missions. Also, there was a fighter bay for Axiom drop ships and fighters and the bridge was half-way down the front of the ship.

The _Saviour _was leading the battle group. Captain Jerry Thompson was battle group 62's leader. He was in the bridge standing near some workers, looking out at the stars.

"Magnificent," he whispered. A nearby worker heard what he said.

"Yes sir, it is," he replied. Jerry chuckled and shook his head slightly.

"This is why I joined the UNSC." he said to the worker. "Get to see space. I love coming up here,"

"Don't we all," another nearby worker said. "Apart from the fact that you get homesick,"

"That's true," Jerry replied. "That's very true."

"Captain!" a worker on a radar control panel exclaimed. "Umeda's in sight."

Jerry walked forward and looked out into space. There, was a small planet with a light blue colour. It was right about being only thirty percent land, Jerry could only just see one main landmass. The rest of the land that was on Umeda was scattered islands. Some ranging from only a few hundred yards to at least around the size of Sicily.

"Good. Alright, let's try and get contact with 'em," Jerry ordered. Two workers immediately set to work on communicating with Umeda.

"Umeda five, two, seven. This is _Saviour_. Over," one of the workers said.

No response.

"Umeda five, two, seven. This is _Saviour_ of battle group 62. Respond, over," the worker said again.

Still no response.

"Contact another ship," Jerry ordered. "See if they've managed to make contact,"

A few seconds later, a man's face appeared on screen.

"Greetings captain Jerry," the man said.

"Captain Ahmed," Jerry replied. "Has the _Anubis_ managed to make contact with Umeda?" Ahmed shook his head.

"I'm afraid not captain." he replied, in an annoyed tone. "We have tried many times to make contact with Umeda and no response has been made to my ship or any other ship in-"

BOOM! The _Saviour_ shook violently. Almost immediately, an alarm went off throughout the ship. "Jesus, what the hell was that!" Jerry shouted.

"Sir! We've taken a hit to our engines!" a worker shouted to the captain.

"Where'd it come from?" Jerry shouted.

"We don't know!" the worker shouted back.

"Commander, the _Imperial Glory's _been hit!" another worker shouted.

A bright flash of light drew everyone's attention to the window. The _Imperial Glory_ had fires all over it and large explosions would erupt from the ship every few seconds. Then, the ship itself exploded, lighting up the whole area. Everyone on the bridge of the _Saviour _went wide-eyed. "My god," Jerry whispered, shock in his voice.

"Captain! The _Terminator _has been hit! All contact's gone, sir," a worker said.

BOOM! A colossal explosion tore through the ship's dome, making it shake violently again.

"ORDER AN EVACUATION!" Jerry yelled.

Seconds later, another explosion ripped through armour on the left side of the ship. The _Saviour _began to tilt. When the ship was diagonal, the engines exploded, taking the back of the ship with it. The front of the ship was hit by more explosions before it exploded.

Captain Ahmed watched this from the bridge of the _Anubis._

"My god," he whispered. "Order all remaining ships back to Takra." The ship shook violently just as he finished speaking.

"Sir, the main cannon is offline." a soldier shouted to the captain.

"We've got fires in the engine room and we've sustained heavy damage to the ship's dome." a worker said to the captain.

"Push the ship's throttles to maximum!" Ahmed ordered. "We must escape to Takra."

The workers began to type in codes for the ship's jump speed. Within seconds, the ship was facing the way it came. Then, it zoomed forward and disappeared into the darkness of space.

In the zone, where the _Anubis_ just left, the remains of the _Saviour, Terminator _and _Imperial Glory _remained floating space. Most of the ships had been blown apart. It was hard to imagine that only a few minutes ago, these ships had hundreds of BnL soldiers and workers on them. Now, they were nothing but floating wrecks, like great beasts that had been killed and were left to rot.

_Anubis's _crew would have one hell of a story to tell when they got back to Takra.


	4. Enemy Identified

Two hours later

President Reuven returned to his office shortly after the conversation with the two army generals in the military base earlier that day. Now, he was sitting at his desk, waiting for a special visitor. President Samuel B. Henderson. He wasn't just another planet president, but he was the head of BnL. He was coming to Takra to see how everything was going.

As Reuven was sitting at his desk, a nervous thought continually ran through his mind. Not that it was about the head of BnL coming to Takra. Well, okay it was but he would, usually, he would be more worried about it. However, that was not the case this time. The case was that battle group 62 had not sent a message back to Takra but what was more terrifying was that all contact with the fleet had been lost.

Then, the door to Reuven's office opened and a man dresses in a business suit stepped in. In the hallway were three soldiers, each carrying a pistol and a machine gun.

"Good day, Mr president." Reuven said, holding up his hand to shake the head of BnL's.

"Good day, Reuven," Samuel replied, shaking Reuven's hand. "I am ready to see how well Takra is doing." Reuven nodded.

"This way, sir," he said.

Reuven led Samuel out of his office, down a corridor and into an elevator. The two jolted when the doors shut.

"So, how has everything been?" Samuel asked Reuven.

"It's been okay," he replied. "UNSC commanders were harassing me this morning to get these damn documents for this new research facility out of the way." Samuel laughed.

"It's never easy with people like the UNSC commanders," he said. "Always want things done."

the elevator stopped. The doors opened. The two stepped out. They were on a platform where another four heavily armed soldier were waiting for them.

"What are we going to inspect first?" Reuven asked Samuel.

"I think we will see how good the planet's fleet and defences," Samuel replied.

A bullet train stopped alongside the platform. It was a lot shinier than the normal bullet trains, so it was obvious that it was for the president of BnL. The doors to the train opened. Reuven and Samuel walked forward and stepped onto the train; the four soldiers followed.

Almost immediately after the train's doors shut, the train zoomed forward, almost throwing the people onboard to the floor. They had to hold onto something to be able to stand up properly. As Samuel stood up, he noticed Reuven take out a pocket-sized computer and use his fingers to check something on it. He sighed after a few moments and put the computer back in his pocket.

"Is everything alright?" Samuel asked Reuven.

"It would be," Reuven replied. "It's been a bit hectic for the past four hours."

He sat down on a seat opposite Samuel.

"Do you want to tell me?" Samuel asked Reuven.

"Well, I had to go to the military base earlier today and two generals there told me that contact with our spaceport on Umeda was lost." Reuven replied. "I ordered battle group 62 to go and investigate and we haven't received anything from the fleet since."

"Maybe they're suffering communication problems." Samuel suggested. Reuven shook his head.

"They can't be," he said. "An entire fleet suffering communication problems? Never happened before and the ships were in perfect condition before they left."

The train slightly as it left the downtown area of the city. Reuven and Samuel almost fell of their seats and had to hold onto them to prevent them from falling down the trainer a few minutes, the train rose until it was straight again.

"Hate it when that happens," Samuel said.

Reuven chuckled. Just then, the group jolted as the train came to a stop. The doors opened and the group got off. They were on another platform just outside a suburb of the city. The platform was connected to a large tower that had steps run down from the platform to the entrance of a nearby building.

"Right," Samuel announced, rubbing his hands together. "Lets see the BnL fleet."

The two leaders, with the four soldiers, walked down the steps towards the building. As they did, Samuel observed the landscape around him.

There were many tall buildings around ten to eleven stories tall. They had flat roofs that had BnL drop ships. These ships are the size of trucks with engine exhausts that use the air to be blown out through these exhausts to allow it to fly and have a large bay with seats to allow soldiers to rest after combat. They are called Pelicans.

Also among the buildings were deforested areas where military vehicle bays and barracks' were built for troops. These deforested areas were also used for training soldiers and using tanks and jeeps. Takra had become a second Earth for humanity since the first days of colonization.

Samuel snapped out of his sightseeing when the group had reached the bottom of the stairs. The door opened. The group walked into the building. The two president's found themselves in a huge open room, but they also found themselves facing a scene of chaos.

There were workers on control panels, for radar and planet defences, soldiers were loading their weapons with ammo and generals were going over what ship's needed to be ready. Soldiers and scientists were rushing from place to place, trying to get things done and some were just so caught up in this chaos that they ended up running into each other.

"What is going on?" Samuel asked Reuven.

"Sir, I have no idea," Reuven replied.

He led the group over to a general, who was giving orders to a BnL battleship captain.

"Get your ship ready and we'll let you know what your orders are la-" the general was saying, but he was cut off by Reuven.

"Excuse me, general?" the general and battleship captain turned to face Reuven.

"Mr presidents," the general said, giving a salute.

The battleship captain did the same.

"Good to see you two," he said.

"General, what is going on?" Reuven asked.

"We have a situation from battle group 62." the general said. "The _Anubis_ returned about twenty minutes ago,"

"There, you see?" Samuel said to Reuven. "The battle group has returned, nothing to worry about."

"Hang on," Reuven interrupted. "Do you mean, the _Anubis_ has returned on It's own?" he asked the general.

"Yes, sir," the general replied. "But it hasn't just returned on It's own. It's got heavy damage to the ship's cannon, engines and about two hundred crew members are dead."

"MR PRESDIENT!" someone shouted. Ahmed ran over to the group.

"Hello, Mr president," he said to Samuel. "I need to talk to you, privately." he said.

He sounded like whatever he needed to tell the two president's was urgent. Ahmed led the two over to a nearby room. This one had a large computer screen on a wall with a control panel below the computer screen. He shut the door before anyone could see what they were doing.

"Ahmed, what the hell is going on?" Reuven asked.

"Commander, we were attacked." Ahmed answered.

"What!" Reuven exclaimed. "Attacked? What the hell do you mean attacked?"

"Look," Ahmed said. "We were heading to Umeda. We get above the planet and each ship tries to make contact with the planet. Neither got any response. Then, next thing you know, the _Imperial Glory's _a wreck, the _Saviour _gets blown to pieces, the _Terminator _is annihilated and my ship is almost shot out of space! Me and my crew were damn lucky enough to escape with our lives." Ahmed concluded.

"Hang on?" Samuel said. "You said you were attacked, but by what?"

"We were attacked by aliens," Ahmed answered. "

There's no such thing as aliens," Reuven said.

"That's what I thought," Ahmed said. "Until two hour ago. And I have proof."

Ahmed reached into his pocket and took out a pocket sized computer. He pushed several buttons on his computer, presumably in a code order. Seconds later, an image appeared on screen. What was on that image was the weirdest ship the two president's had ever seen.

The ship was huge! Bigger than any cruiser or battleship BnL had ever built. Most of the ship had shiny silver armour. The front of the ship had two sections. A top section and a lower section. The two sections were separated by a black armour that ran around the rear of the ship's front. That black armour would most likely be filled with turrets or radar transmitters or who knows what else. The top section looked like the end of a hover. The lower section looked like the tip of a spoon, but a small curved section stuck out from the lower section of ship, several hundred metres from another a second lower section of the ship.

The top section of the front of the ship carried on from the hover-like front. A wide long tunnel-like section went back from the front of the ship to a large bulge-like area of the ship, which connected to the second lower section of the ship. The second lower section of the ship looked like a hawk with a trapezium-like head. Two huge wing-like sections stuck out and they led to the engines, four exhaust silos that had light blue/dark blue lights coming from the exhaust silos. After the engines, a section went over the engines and like a low and wide hill.

"What the hell is that thing," Reuven said, aghast.

"That is what attacked us," Ahmed replied.

"That thing is huge!" Samuel exclaimed. "It must be bigger than anything we've ever built."

"I got one of our supercomputers to go over the length of the ship in the photo and It's calculated that this ship could be over 10,000ft long." Ahmed told them.

"Alright," Samuel announced. "Lets not panic. I'll order a battleship fleet to go after this alien craft."

He was about to walk towards the door when it flew opened and a general quickly walked in, looking terrified.

"Mr president!" he said, a terror in his voice. "It's admiral Harper!"

"If he has a damaged ship or a ship that's being used, get another one into his fleet immediately!" Samuel ordered. "Harper needs to be sent out on a special mission."

"No, sir," the general said, stopping Samuel as he tried to walk past him. "I came to tell you about admiral Harper. His fleet has been destroyed."

The colour in Samuel's face drained in just a mere second.

"What," he whispered, absolutely unable to believe what he had just heard.

"Admiral Harper's fleet has been destroyed," the general repeated. "It was over Kurar when the entire fleet was attacked by a large unidentified fleet. One fighter pilot escaped. He landed in a hanger about five minutes ago. We took him to a briefing room and he told us that there were ten unidentified ships and they blew Admiral Harper's fleet apart. Then, they fired these lasers at Kurar and the planet's surface just became an inferno within minutes."

"Are you being serious?" Samuel asked.

The general nodded. "We even have pictures of the attacking ships," he said.

He walked over to the computer screen, took out his own pocket sized computer and typed in a code. A line went down the computer screen. On the left side was Ahmed's sighting of the ship. On the right side was a picture of the same ship, except that there were three instead of one and they were firing purple lasers at a large Earth-like planet. The planet's surface was a fiery orange colour where large explosions would erupt every few seconds.

"These are the same ships like the one that destroyed battle group 62," Reuven said.

"I think It's safe to say, Mr president, that we are at war with another civilization," Ahmed said.

Samuel couldn't believe what he was hearing. The first time humanity had come face to face with aliens and they wanted to annihilate the human race.

"Get every defence on every planet around this sun," Samuel ordered. "We're not going down without a fight,"


	5. The special bodysuit

One year later

Twelve months ago, humanity made It's first encounter with an alien race. It was clear that these aliens did not come in peace.

In the months following the destruction of battle group 62, Kurar and admiral Harper's fleet over Kurar, the aliens smashed through the BnL forces sent out to stop them. No matter how many ships, tanks, infantry were sent out to stop the aliens, they were just wiped out. Two months after the aliens first attack on humanity, they took over Vorgra and It's moon, Idlem. Three months after the first attack, they took over Lupo and destroyed admiral Kincaid and his fleet of four battleships and two cruisers sent out to stop them.

The heaviest blow came at the end of the tenth month of the war. Takra was attacked by an armada of fifty alien ships, the same that attacked Kurar and the two fleets almost a year earlier, destroying the planet and killing two billion humans. The rest had managed to escape to other planets, but they were all thinking how long they had left before they were next to die.

It wasn't until six weeks ago when mankind finally had a lead on these aliens. During an attack on Akrar, BnL captured an alien and took it to Eucia, where he told the humans that the human's attackers are a coalition of aliens races under one banner called 'The Covenant'. Their goal was to destroy the 'human filth' from the universe. Mankind now had a lead on their enemies name and how they were so powerful, but they didn't know where the aliens could strike next. It became harder for BnL soldiers to get to the front lines to fight the Covenant. Very few tides were turned in different battles and even if a battle turned in favour of humanity, it would only last a while before the Covenant brought up their ships which would wipe out scores of humans in the space of a few minutes.

It seemed that there was little hope for mankind in this time of need.

Location: White House, Washington D.C, Earth

Date: March 3rd, 2552

President Samuel Henderson was sitting at his desk, his elbows on the table and his hands covering his face. Only a few days ago, the Covenant attacked Tura and Tura II, killing thousands of civilians and soldiers. This was another blow to humanity. Samuel was always asking himself,_ how long do we have left? _How long did humanity have left before they would be fully annihilated?A knock at the room's door brought Samuel out of his depression.

"Come in," he said. The door opened and a general with gold star medals pinned to his uniform's chest walked in.

"General Robinson," Samuel said, standing up. "It's good to see you,"

"Good day, Mr president," the general replied. "I have some news for you,"

Samuel groaned and slumped back into his seat.

"If it has anything to do with another attack or destroyed fleet, let's hear it now and get it over with," he said in a low tone.

However, the general chuckled.

"Actually, Mr president. This is good news," the general told Samuel, who looked up at the general.

He was surprised about this good news. Not that humanity had been getting any since the war began, of course they had. What was so surprising about it was that it had been some time since BnL had received any good news.

"Well, let's hear it," Samuel said.

The general nodded. He looked up at the door and whistled. The door opened and a soldier with two scientists walked in. The soldier was wearing a green bodysuit that covered his body from the neck down.

"This is a special body suit," one of the scientists said. "This suit has a shield that protects the body and it can recharge , but only if you are behind cover and it will not recharge if it is exposed for too long."

"Is this suit bullet-proof?" Samuel asked.

"Yes sir," the soldier said. "They tested it on me earlier this week. We can test it in front of you if you want,"

"Let's see it," Samuel said.

The general nodded and walked out of the room. He returned a few seconds later with a machine gun in his hands.

"You may want to stand back," one of the scientists said to Samuel.

Samuel nodded and went back up against the wall. The general aimed the weapon at the soldier.

At once, there was an uproar of gunfire. It sounded like a door being blown apart. When the gunfire stopped, Samuel saw that the soldier was still standing exactly where he was, completely unharmed.

"Amazing," Samuel said, very pleased.

"If you look now, Mr president, a small holographic meter has appeared on one of the soldier's wrists," the general said.

Samuel walked over to the soldier and looked at his left wrist. A small blue meter appeared above the wrist. The meter had a small bar at the bottom that was a red colour. Then, the bar rose up through the meter, changing colour from red to yellow and then to green when the bar reached the top of the meter.

"Amazing," Samuel said again. "Where did you get the resources to build this suit?" he asked. "We used the Dorvask material, Mr president," one of the scientists answered.

"Yes," the general piped up. "We have been mining this material for a few years now. We've only found it on our moon and Jupiter's moons Io and Callisto, but we've discovered that this material is kind of like a titanium, steel and there's an unknown space resource that turns from a liquid, once mixed with the titanium and steel, to a solid fifteen times stronger than steel."

"Well, that's good," Samuel replied. "We can use this material and make new battle suits for our armies in the fight against the Covenant."

The general gave the scientists an anxious look. This did not go unnoticed by Samuel.

"What is it?" he asked quickly.

If there was anything wrong, he had to know it or it could affect everything for humanity in this war.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, sir," the general said. "I'm afraid the Dorvask material is running out quickly."

"Can't we make more of it with our titanium and steel?" Samuel asked, hoping for a yes.

Sadly, it was not to be.

"We have searched every corner of all our colonized planets and even the moons and planets that have not been colonized." one of the scientists said. "We cannot find anymore of the alien resource we need. Without it, we cannot make any Dorvask."

Samuel heaved a heavy sigh. There was always a problem for everything. This one rose higher than any other problem he ever had. Unless by some miracle, it could not be fixed.

"How many of these suits have you made?" Samuel asked the general.

"We have only made sixty five," the general answered. "Both male and female. We have chosen fifty people to be these super soldiers. Only the best soldiers, medics, engineers and we also have a few ship guards and a few E.R members in the force as well."

"Do you have a leader?" Samuel asked.

"I'm sorry?" the general asked.

"I said do you have a leader?" Samuel replied. "We will need someone to lead these super soldiers into battle against the Covenant,"

"That is correct," one of the scientists piped up. "We will need a fully experienced soldier to lead out super soldiers."

"But who?" the other scientist asked.

"I think I know just the person who can help us with this problem," the soldier said to the group.


	6. The task force

Three hours later

Location: E.R HQ, Eucia

The day on Eucia was coming to an end. As the sun began to drift away to the west, a just visible dark patch of sky was heading in from the east. The night wasn't far behind.

On the planet's surface, a Pelican was coming in for a landing. When it was above a clearing, right in the middle of a forest, the clearing broke apart. It turned out this clearing was a large door for access to an underground hanger.

The pelican descended into the opening. The massive doors closed, turning on a set of lights all the way down the long tunnel that led further underground. The pelican's descent slowed as it got nearer to the bottom of the tunnel. When it was about fifty feet from the tunnel's end, a square marked with the letters LZ lit up. The pelican's landing gear unfolded itself from either side of the Pelican's bay and touched down on the LZ square, bringing the ship to a rest.

The resting area of the ship also had a protective door that went over the entrance to the ship. When the Pelican landed, the door rose up and disappeared in a slot above the Pelican's entrance. A group of women in armoured body suits got off the Pelican.

These women were part of the E.R division of BnL's UNSC. E.R stands for Extraterrestrial Reconnaissance. Their job was to use special one seated craft, nicknamed Stalkers, to spy on any Covenant ships. It was a very dangerous job because the Covenant always had air patrols in the skies looking for Stalkers.

"Hey, Eve," one of the woman called into the Pelican. "C'mon, we have to report to debriefing,"

"I'm coming," another woman's voice replied.

After a few seconds, the last woman stepped off the Pelican and joined the rest of the crew as they walked off the LZ platform into a corridor.

Eve was a well-known member of the E.R. She was only twenty years old and was around 6.4ft tall, the women that worked for the E.R needed to be tall to pilot the Stalkers, with a perfect athletic body. She had shoulder length vanilla white hair, perfect muscularly tuned legs and very good hearing.

Eve was the youngest member of BnL's UNSC. She was also the best they had. She had helped in the missions to help colonize more planets and she had explored more planets for extraterrestrial vegetation when she was an E.V.E (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) probe. However, after the war began, nearly all of the E.V.E probes were put into the new E.R division and work years for the E.V.E division of BnL went from age seventeen to retirement to age seventeen to twenty.

Most of Eve's friends were with her in the E.R, but she was always worried about them more than herself. One of her best friends, a new member to the E.R named Jessica, had been sent on a scouting mission to Lupo nearly two weeks after It's destruction. Unfortunately, a Covenant fighter group was still in the area where Lupo was and Jessica's Stalker was blown apart along with Jessica. Since then, Eve had become even closer to her friends.

Eve walked down the corridor with the rest of the E.R members. They reached a door which opened to let them pass. The crew found themselves in a debriefing room where there were three rows of hover chairs, three to each row. The girls sat down on the chairs and waited. A few seconds later, a general walked in through another door on the other side of the room.

"Good evening, ladies," he said.

"Good evening, general," replied nine ladies voices.

"Alright, lets go over today's scouting missions," the general said, taking out a data pad. "Mary, your mission to Mudera II, you find anything?"

"Nothing, sir," a lady on the left end of the second row replied.

"Okay. Sophie, your mission to Arkar, anything?"

"Only a few Covenant drop ships, sir," a lady sitting on one of the front row middle chairs said.

"Rachael, your mission to Kurar?"

"Nothing, sir,"

The general went through the list quickly. The fourth and fifth names called out hadn't found anything with the Covenant. The sixth lady said she reported two Covenant assault carriers on her mission to Vorgra. The seventh lady found nothing on her mission to Erua. Finally…

"Eve. Your mission to Takra?"

"I found six covenant assault carriers there, general," Eve replied.

"Good work. Okay, last but not least, Katie. Your mission to Scendura?"

"Only a few Covenant CCS battle cruisers." a lady sitting at the front right end said.

The general began typing down on the data pad. After about a minute, he looked up at the ladies.

"Alright, girls. Your free to go," he said. As the E.R members got ready to leave, the commander added. "Except you, Eve. I need to talk to you,"

Eve looked up the commander, surprised. She had had many of these before, _but why today_? It's not like she's done anything special.

When the rest of the ladies had left, the commander turned to Eve.

"Follow me," he said.

The general led Eve into the same corridor where the other E.R members had gone. However, there was another corridor that led left about half way down the first corridor. Instead of continuing forwards, the general and Eve turned down the corridor on the left. They walked halfway down this corridor before coming to a halt outside a large door.

"May I ask, sir?" Eve inquired.

"Don't worry, Eve," the general replied. "It'll become clear in a minute,"

The general placed his hand on a scanning device. The door opened to reveal an office-like room with a desk, a computer screen on the wall and several radar and weapons activation control panels.

Eve stepped inside; the general followed.

"What are we doing here?" Eve asked.

"Eve," the general replied. "I'd like you to meet the BnL president."

A man in a tuxedo stood up from the desk. It was Samuel. Eve gasped as she only just realized he was there.

"Mr president!" she exclaimed, giving a salute. Samuel chuckled.

"At ease, Eve," he said. "I didn't come here to make sure you still knew the UNSC's rules," Eve lowered her hand.

She felt a bit embarrassed after realising she didn't need to salute.

"So, Eve," Samuel said. "I guess your wondering why you are here,"

"Yes, Mr president," Eve replied.

"Well, to get started. The war with the Covenant is costing us dearly. We have lost thousands of soldiers, scientists, civilians etc. The only good thing about this war is that the Covenant do not know the location of Earth. However, we fear that if they continue this offensive against us, they soon will."

"Not to be rude, Mr president," Eve said. "But, where do I fit in all this?"

"I'm glad you asked, Eve." Samuel replied. "Do you know of the Dorvask material?" he asked her. Eve nodded.

"Well, this Dorvask material is drying up. But we have used it to make special body suits with shields, but the shields are only temporary. Anyway, we have picked out UNSC's top medics, soldiers, engineers and so on, to be part of special task force."

"Let me guess," Eve said. "You want me to be part of this task force,"

"That is correct," Samuel replied. "But not just a normal member, we want you to lead the task force." Eve's eyes widened.

"What!" she exclaimed. "Hang on, why?"

"Look, Eve," the general said. "You can say no, you don't have to be part of this task force. We'll find another leader. But, it would be good if you did lead them. I mean, you're the best we have in the whole of the UNSC. We really need someone like you."

Eve thought hard for a moment. She didn't know whether to say yes or no. She hadn't been in combat with the Covenant much before. However, she also wanted to help her race from being destroyed.

After about a minute, Eve came up with her answer.

"I'll do it, Mr president," she said.

Samuel was just absolutely amazed and astounded by Eve's answer.

"Eve, thank you so much! Thank you!" he said, getting up and shaking Eve's hand.

The general walked up to Eve.

"Good, decision, Eve," he said, shaking her hand as well. "Alright, now you are to report to the hanger tomorrow. You are to be taken to Reach. We'll see you tomorrow."

With that, Eve nodded and left.

When she was outside, her mind came to life with activity. She was happy that she was helping her race. It felt like a new life had started for her. She smiled at herself and walked down they way she came moments earlier to join the rest of her friends.


	7. A new life

The next day

Location: UNSC underground base, Reach

Reach was a large BnL UNSC stronghold. Ever since It's colonization, humans had spread rapidly across It's surface. Reach, however, was different than other human colonies. Instead of it being a planet for human civilians, Reach was a planet for the UNSC. It was one of the main UNSC bases from Earth. It was vitally important because it was the only planet that held information on Earth's location. Also because it was where the special task force was stationed.

Eve's transport had arrived on Reach earlier that day. She was pretty nervous. Not of the training or her going into battle with the Covenant, but who she was going to meet. The general from yesterday had told her that several of her friends had become part of this task force, which brought her some relief, but she was still nervous. Luckily, she wasn't going to meet everyone for long. The general had told her that a few minutes after she would get to meet the task force, they were to go to a meeting hall where a sergeant would debrief them for the coming months.

Eve had already dressed into her bodysuit. It was a lot better than the armoured one she would have to wear in the E.R. It was lighter, the E.R bodysuits were quite heavy and not easy to run in, and Eve felt safer because of the body suit's shield but she still had to keep safe because the shield wasn't to protect her from the fighting against the Covenant.

Eve was walking down a corridor towards a large blast door that led into the warehouse where the rest of the task force was. The blast door opened to allow her into the warehouse.

In front of her were groups of people from five to six scattered around the room. They were wearing the same kind of body suits, but most were either green, white or red. Eve felt happy being surrounded by people with the same body suits. She felt safe and the feeling that she wasn't going at this alone.

"Eve!" someone exclaimed from behind.

Eve turned to see Anya, another of her friends wearing a green body suit, running up to her.

"Anya!" Eve exclaimed, giving her a hug when she reached her. "I'm so happy to see you,"

"Same here," Anya replied, letting go of Eve.

She began pulling Eve towards a warehouse corner.

"C'mon, everyone else is over here," Anya said.

Eve followed her friend to the warehouse's corner, where four other girls were sat. One was wearing a green body suit, the other three were wearing white body suits. As Eve came other, they happily greeted her.

"Hey, Allison," Eve was saying. "Good to see you. Hey Sophie, Bethany, Emily. I'm glad you guys are here,"

"So are we," Sophie, wearing a white body suit, replied. "We hoped the UNSC would pick you,"

"They haven't just made me a normal member," Eve said. "I met with the BnL president,"

"Seriously?" Anya gasped, unable to believe had just said.

Eve nodded.

"What did he say?" Bethany asked, eager to know.

"He said that because I'm the best BnL has, he made leader of the task force," Eve explained.

"That's amazing," Allison said. "I always knew you'd be leader of something,"

"I know," Eve replied. "I'm glad I'm with you guys."

"Alright!" a soldier on the other side of the warehouse announced. "Everyone, this way,"

Eve joined her friends as they walked out of the warehouse down another corridor. After a few minutes, the task force found themselves in another large warehouse where a walkway went across from one corridor to another on the other side of the warehouse.

When the task force had piled into the warehouse, a soldier walked across the walkway. He stopped half-way across the walkway and looked down at the task force.

"Good day, soldiers," he announced.

"Good day, sir," the task force chanted. The soldier cleared his throat.

"I am sergeant John," he said. "I will be training you for the fight against the Covenant. Many of you may not have been in combat before. For those of you that have, you'll expect what training will come. Training will last a month. Now, report to your barracks. Training will start later today."

Eve joined the task force as they left through a door on the left wall. They went down another corridor until they came into a room with bunk beds that went down both sides of the room. There were thirty two bunk beds. The bunk beds were taken quickly. Eve went down to the other end to find a single bed.

"I'll sleep here," she said as she sat down on the bed. Anya and Bethany had taken the bunk bed next to Eve's bed.

"Start of a new life," Anya said as he climbed up onto the top bunk.

"It'll be hell when we're out there fighting the Covenant," Eve replied.

She laid down on her bed, thinking about the training that was to begin later that day. Anya was right. It was going to be a new life for them, but it was going to tough. And it would get tougher when they were going to be sent out into combat.


	8. Training

Five days later

Base 1 weapons range

"Clear!" someone shouted.

At once, there was an uproar on gunfire. From the weapons cubicles, Eve, Bethany, Anya, a soldier, in a red bodysuit, named Matthew and a sniper, in a green bodysuit, named Tom were firing at moving targets shaped like humans. Today, they were using assault rifles. After about a minute a bell rang, bringing an abrupt halt to the barrage.

Sergeant John walked forward and examined the targets on a holographic screen.

"Good work, troops," he said. "This concludes your weapons training for today. Eve, Matt and Anya, report to the combat room,"

Eve, joined Anya and Matt as they left through a door to the left of the weapon cubicles.

"What do you think we'll do in the combat room?" Eve asked.

"Most likely fighting a replica of a Covenant soldier," Matthew answered.

"How do you know that?" Anya asked him.

"This is yours and Eve's first weapons training." Matthew replied. "After the first weapons training, you go to the combat room and have to take down a Covenant soldier in hand-to-hand combat. I did this training earlier this week."

The three came to a halt outside a steel door, which automatically opened for them. The three walked in, where they found themselves in a room overlooking a large square arena. A lift had built into the left wall. A tall sergeant with a moustache was standing at a window. He turned to greet them.

"Good day, troops," he said. "I'm sergeant Avery. I'll be overseeing your hand-to-hand combat training. Take the lift down to the preparation room. There's four others waiting in there."

The three got into the elevator. It jolted slightly as it descended towards a large rectangle-like building that almost touched the left end of the arena. Eve was counting down the metres to the ground. _Fifty metres. Forty. Thirty. Twenty. Ten._

Finally, the elevator abruptly stopped, signalling that it had reached the bottom. The doors opened. The three stepped out of the elevator.

"Hey guys," Eve and Anya heard Allison say as she walked up to greet them. "Your doing this as well."

"Yeah," Eve replied. "I wonder what alien we'll be fighting,"

_"Okay, troops. Listen up!"_ a voice said all of a sudden.

It was Avery. He was speaking into a screen that had the soldiers on it. 

_"You'll take it one at a time to fight these alien replica's. Now let me warn you, these aliens aren't real, but their hand-to-hand combat is, so be careful. And don't worry, if it gets too much for you or if you get knocked out or badly injured, we'll halt the training. Eve, you've just volunteered. Good luck!"_

"I didn't volunteer!" Eve protested.

"_Quit whining and get in there!" _Eve heard Avery say.

Sighing, she walked through the entrance to the arena. Immediately after she was outside the building, a steel door slammed shut over the entrance. Eve was now on her own.

Eve looked around the arena. It had a steel floor and it stretched out for maybe eighty metres in length and seventy in width. Hard rock was the arena's walls. It ran round the arena and at each corner was a steel column that had girders that stretched across the roof of the arena from one column to another.

Suddenly, Eve heard a hissing noise. Not even a second later, a section of the floor broke away and descended into darkness. A platform. Eve, cautiously, stepped forward to look down the hole where the platform had just descended into. However, when she was about two feet from the hole, the platform shot back up into place, startling Eve. What also startled her was that there was a creature standing on the platform. It was around 8.5ft tall with a huge torso, long muscular legs and very powerful arms. It looked very aggressive. The creature had thick gold armour placed on It's legs, arms, torso and it had a strange helmet armour for It's head. What Eve could also see, only just, was that the creature had a quadruple-hinged jaw with four mandibles that must've been the lips of the creature.

Eve had never seen this creature before, but there were two things she knew. The first was that this was the alien she had to fight, not good, and two, it did not look like a nice alien.

The creature stared at Eve, It's mandibles were opening and closing. The creature bared It's razor sharp teeth at Eve and clenched It's hands into fists. The creature had four fingers on both hands. Two middle fingers and two thumbs. The hands also had armour on them, which made Eve wince at the thought that if the alien punched her, it would really hurt.

"_Good luck, Eve!"_ Avery's voice boomed over the arena's intercom. _"Start now!"_

Before Eve could even blink, the alien lunged at her.

Eve narrowly avoided the alien by jumping to her left. However, the alien quickly got up and lunged at Eve again, only this time it managed to pin her to the floor. Mandibles open, teeth baring, the alien leaned forward to bite Eve. Using all her strength, Eve clenched her left hand into a fist and punched alien in the side of the head. At first, it seemed to have worked. Then, the alien grabbed Eve by the neck with It's left hand and lifted her about a foot off the ground. Then, the alien head butted her and threw her onto the floor.

Eve groaned as she got up. Her head felt like it had struck something really hard and her lip was bleeding from where a sharp part of the alien's helmet armour scratched her. Eve, however, didn't notice the alien until it lunged at her again, getting her round the stomach and pinning her to the floor again.

The alien raised It's fist above It's head. It was going to try and smash Eve's face in. Then, it brought the fist down. It was only inches from Eve's face.

However, Eve, using her left hand, managed to grab the alien's hand just as it was about to hit her nose. Eve used all her strength and pushed as hard as she could to get the alien's fist away from her face. When she had successfully managed to push it away about two inches, she clenched her right hand into a fist and threw a punch at the alien's neck.

The impact must have really stunned the alien because as soon as it was hit, it immediately let go of Eve and staggered back a few feet, clutching It's neck as if it was trying to choke itself. Eve smiled at herself. Maybe this wasn't going to be a hard fight.

That thought was quickly put out of her mind when the alien looked up at her. It's eyes narrowed, It's teeth bared. It wasn't hard to tell that it was not very happy. The alien charged towards Eve. Eve turned and ran as fast as her legs would go. The alien had much faster speed. It was catching up. Eve tried to run faster, but even if she did, the alien would easily catch up to her. It looked hopeless.

Suddenly, Eve had an idea. Because she was running towards the left wall, her plan was most likely to work. When she was about four feet from the left wall, Eve suddenly turned towards the arena's building. The alien failed to stop and skidded into the wall. Eve heard him growl and then heavy footfalls behind her. Her pace quickened as the building got closer. Suddenly, Eve had to stop. She had reached the building. She heard the alien's footfalls getting louder. She began to panic. Suddenly, she was pushed against the building's wall like a car had hit her. It was agony. More of it came when the alien pushed Eve to the floor and clutched her neck. Eve's breathing got weaker with every breath. She was couldn't get the alien's hands off her neck. This could be her last moment.

In one last bid, Eve mustered all of her strength and threw one punch at the alien's eye. This time, the blow really stunned the alien. It immediately let go of Eve, allowing her to stand up, and clutched It's eye. Eve saw her chance and grabbed hold of the alien's head and smashed it into the building's wall. The alien fell to the floor. A small trickle of blood, which surprised Eve as it was not red but purple, came out of a wound on the alien's head. Immediately after defeating the alien, an alarm sounded. At once, the alien became a hologram and then disappeared. The door to the building opened.

"_Amazing, Eve!"_ Avery's voice boomed over the arena's intercom. _"UNSC high command made the right decision to put you as part of the task force. Well done!"_

Eve walked into the building, only to met by a round of applause from the other task force members.

"Eve, that was amazing!" Matthew said to her. "We saw the whole thing on a security camera. You kicked that alien's butt!"

"Yeah, you showed him!" Anya added.

"Well done, Eve," a voice said from behind. Eve turned to see sergeant John standing there, a smile on his face. "I don't know anyone who's managed to take down an alien that quick and not sustain bad injuries."

"Thank you, sir," Eve replied.

"Avery was right," John added. "UNSC command did make the right decision to put you in this task force. You'll be a lot of help to us,"

Eve smiled at her friends as John walked back into the elevator. She was glad that UNSC put her in this task force. Other than being with her friends, she could help save her race and It's home.


	9. Alien races

Twenty four days later

Reach main hall

It had been hard training for the task force over the past several weeks. Eve had gone through a lot of training. After the fight with the alien replica, she and another team of the task force's soldiers had to learn ho to call for evac. Then, a few days later, they learned how to rescue hostages from Covenant control and how to capture a Covenant commander. It had all been tiring, but was all going to be over in a few days.

Luckily today, the task force wasn't going to do any training. Today, they were headed towards the main hall where sergeant John was going to show them the soldiers of the Covenant.

Eve was with Bethany, Allison, Anya and Matthew as they joined the rush down the main corridor that lead to the main hall. "After all that training, we finally learn what races make up the Covenant," Matthew said.

"It's gone quick," Anya replied. "But, the combat, that'll drag on forever,"

"You better get used to it soon as your out there," Matthew told her. "When I was out there, before I came here, a day would feel like an eternity. Even the fighting, which would speed up the day would go on forever." Eve sighed.

"Let's hope that doesn't happen," she said.

The four walked through an entrance to the main hall. The main hall building was another warehouse but not as large as other warehouse-like buildings the task force had entered before. At the end of the building was a computer screen the size of a small boat. Sergeant John was standing next to the computer screen.

Set out in the middle of the warehouse was a set of hover chairs, thirteen by five. Eve, Anya, Bethany, Matthew and Allison sat down at second row. Anya was at the left end, next to her was Bethany, then Allison, then Matthew and then Eve. When everyone else had taken a seat, John cleared his throat.

"Good morning, troops," he announced. "Lucky for you today, there will no training. Today, we are going to show you the troops of the Covenant and then assign each of you your tasks for your first mission."

"Basically, It'll be boring," Matthew whispered to Allison, who silently smirked.

"I think I'd rather take training over this," she whispered back.

"Now," John said. "Here is the first alien."

The computer screen lit up with life. A picture came on screen with a strange looking creature. Probably one of the strangest most of the task force has ever seen.

The creature was between three and a half to five and a half feet tall. It had a dark grey head that looked like it was mutated. It's eyes were a black and red bead like colour. A gas mask-like object was covering where It's mouth could be. It's skin was like elephants. It hung loosely over It's skeleton, making it baggy. The skin was also covered with thick scales. The creature's hands were the size of humans heads. It had only four fingers on each hand, one thumb and three middle fingers. The creature's legs were like elephants with iguana's toes on them. The creature had bright orange armour on It's chest, shoulders and halfway down It's arm. There was also a large triangle shaped armour that covered their back and stuck up about two feet in the air.

"This creature you see before is called an Unggoy," John explained. "We call 'em Grunts, mainly because of their size and because they are not hard to kill. But be warned, troops. Even on Earth, the smallest of creatures can still put up a brave fight, so remember they are easy to kill but they will put a fight."

"Very convincing," Matthew whispered sarcastically.

"Anyway," John went on. "Grunts fight in packs of up to four or five strong. They will, almost all the time, be in a pack when fighting. The only time when they are not is when they are on a turret or piloting a vehicle. They are usually led by either a higher ranking Grunt or an Elite. However, most Grunts will flee if confronted by superior enemies, unless they are being led by a someone. I also suppose your wondering why they have a huge triangle piece of armour on their backs. The reason is because the Grunt home world's atmosphere is mostly comprised of methane. In that armour is a built in methane tank that connects to the methane breather they wear over their mouths."

"Finally, Grunts have five ranks in their race in the Covenant. The first is a Grunt minor, they are always on the battlefield and wear orange armour. The second is a Grunt major, they are also on the battlefield and they usually lead minor Grunts if an Elite is not around. They wear red armour. The third is a heavy Grunt. Heavy Grunts are mostly used for defensive positions and are mostly seen on Shade turrets. They wear green armour. The fourth is a Special ops Grunt. These Grunts a mostly used for special missions. We have had very little combat with them, so don't worry too much about them. They wear jet black armour. The final rank is Grunt ultra. Grunt ultra's are the top Grunt commanders. They wear silver armour, but they are also rarely seen on the battlefield."

"Wow," Allison whispered. "The first one and already It's boring," Matthew and Bethany smirked silently.

"The next alien you will see if known as a Kig-Yar," John said. "Or, as we like to call it, a Jackal."

The computer screen sparked to life again. The image of the Grunt alien disappeared, only to be replaced by another alien.

The next alien shocked the task force members quite a bit. It looked like a bird standing upright on It's hind legs like a human. It stood about six feet tall. It had feather-like quills on It's head. It's mouth was a beak that only just revealed a set of razor sharp teeth. The feet were like a Velociraptor's, except they didn't have the curved toe. The skin was a light brown colour, with a touch a grey on the skin around they eyes and back of the neck. The creature wore some strange clothing that was like a strap on vest with a small circle-like bulge at the centre of the vest. There was also armour on the toes and legs. On It's right arm, the creature wore a bracelet-like around It's wrist. Maybe a weapon or tracking device.

"The Jackal is an extremely cautious creature. They are a lot better in combat than Grunts. This is mainly because they have amazing vision, hearing and smelling. Also, they have good climbing abilities with their hands and feet, which can allow them to climb trees and small buildings. The wrist device they carry is actually a shield which they use to defend themselves and wounded in combat. The shield is pretty much bullet-proof. Only rockets, grenades and weapons from vehicles and turrets can destroy those shields. However, instead of wasting your ammo, the best thing to do is to wait for the Jackal to return fire because he moves the shield from in front of him to his side, completely exposing himself. However, if you manage to destroy the shield but the Jackal still lives, it'll flee until the shield activates. So a word of advice, you see a fleeing bird, kill it."

"That alien looks creepy," Matthew whispered to Eve.

"I know," Eve replied. "It looks like a mutated vulture."

"Before we move on," John continued. "There are two known ranks in the Jackal race. The first is a minor Jackal. The second is a major Jackal. These two Jackals are no different in appearance or armour or weapons. The only difference is their shields. The Minor Jackals' shield is always green. The major Jackals' shield is always a purple/pink colour. Remember that."

"Anymore left, I'm almost falling asleep here," Matthew muttered to himself.

The computer screen sprang to life again. The image of the Jackal disappeared quickly. In the blink of an eye, another alien appeared. This alien was a big one. It had thick armour on It's chest, head, arms, legs and even It's hands. Eve gasped.

"That's the alien I had to battle," she whispered to her friends.

"Your lucky you won that without really bad injuries," Matthew whispered back. "I know another guy called Sam who went in a fight against one of those. When it was over, he looked like he'd been in an accident. He was real messed up."

"This alien you see now is called Sangheili," John explained. "We call it an Elite. The reason we call this alien an elite is because they are the backbone of the Covenant army. They are very aggressive, strong and fast. Their height is about eight and a half feet tall. The way their legs go in a backwards curve beneath their knees allows them to jump over great distances. Their armour is like steel. It covers pretty much all of their body. Also, their armour has a built in shield that recharges, much like your own. Also, their armour has some sort of active camouflage. They are invisible, but they can easily be seen by the outline of their armour. If you can kill them, the camouflage will be disabled and you will see their bodies."

"Now that is something I'd like on the battlefield," Anya whispered to Bethany, who nodded in reply.

"We only know a handful of ranks in the Elites army." John continued. "The first is a Elite minor. They were light blue armour and they are easy to kill. They mostly lead Grunts and Jackals and are always on the battlefield. The second is a Elite major. They were red armour and are slightly stronger and more deadly than Elite minors. They also lead Grunts and Jackals, but can sometimes lead two or three Elite minors. The third we know about is known as a 'Zealot' by the Covenant. They were gold armour that is quite difficult to penetrate. It is common to see them on the battlefield, but they will only appear if their other troops are dead or if they are defending important areas of the battlefield. They are like battlefield commanders and they can fire their weapons like hell at you. And if that wasn't enough, they have a weapon called the energy sword that is probably the only proper weapon that can kill you with one swipe."

"Basically, you see a commander. Kill it," Matthew whispered to Eve, who nodded in reply.

"Now, the last alien you will see is a very hard alien to kill," John said.

The image of the Elite on the computer screen disappeared. Another image of an alien appeared. This one brought wide eyes to everyone in the hall.

This alien was huge in both length and width. It had rhino like skin with massive bulks that could have been It's muscles. It must've stood about twelve feet tall. It had two foot quills sticking out of the back of the head, shoulder and back. The armour was a dark blue colour that looked to be extremely hard to penetrate. It didn't have any eyes, by the looks of it, so how it could find It's way around the battlefield was a mystery.

The alien had dangerous looking weapons as well. On one arm, it had a huge heavy metal shield that looked like a sword. On the other, it had some sort of huge cannon. Whatever was fired from that cannon could probably destroy a building with just one shot.

"This alien is known as a Mgalekgolo," John explained. "We call it a Hunter. The reason is because although they are not fast like Elites, they can easily take down an enemy within a range of around two to five hundred metres away with It's cannon. Because they don't have any eyes, they find their way around through sense of smell and strong hearing, but this hearing does not work like the Jackals. Now this cannon can fire heavy exploding plasma projectiles that can devastate an area of up to twenty yards. So a word of advice, you see one of these things, either get behind a big rock or kill it using a grenade. However, these guys do have a weak spot. On their back is an exposed part of orange skin. A grenade or burst of ammunition from a heavy weapon can kill them quickly. These aliens mainly work in pairs for heavy attack or heavy defence and there are no ranks in their army."

The image of the Hunter disappeared. Another image appeared on screen. However, this time it was an image of a Covenant fleet. There were at least fifty assault carriers with loads of CCS-class battle cruisers.

"This Covenant fleet is part of the main fleet that launches the attacks on our colonized planets," John explained. The image zoomed in on a large assault carrier.

"This assault carrier is the head of this fleet," John continued. "Our sources tell us that this ship is carrying Intel on the Covenant home world. Like them, we don't know where their home world is. But if you can board this ship and get to the bridge, we will learn the location of the Covenant home world. Our very survival could depend on the outcome of this mission."

"Great, first mission and already they're pressuring us," Matthew muttered to himself.

"The mission will take place in ten days time." John said. "Now before we go, I have one more notice to say. Eve will be leading the assault."

At once, everyone in the hall turned to stare at Eve. Eve felt uncomfortable with everyone staring at her. It was like an antelope being watched by a lion. Eve felt like she was the antelope and the other super soldiers were the lions all watching her, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"As Eve is the best in the UNSC, she has been chosen personally by the BnL president to lead you against the Covenant. Now, go back to your barracks and rest. You will report to the mission hall later today to go over the mission's objectives." John said.

Everyone got up and headed straight for the door. Eve hoped to remain anonymous from the rest of the task force. This failed as Anya, Allison, Bethany, Emily and Sophie caught up with her.

"Eve," Anya said. "Congratulations. I had a feeling you would lead us against the Covenant."

"You must be proud," Sophie added.

"I am proud," Eve replied. "But I don't know how to lead troops. What if I screw up and end up getting everyone killed?"

"You won't, Eve!" Anya protested. "You'll pick it up. You can do it. You've been known as UNSC's best, so if you did that you can do this," Eve smiled.

"Thanks guys," she said. "You're the best friends anyone could ever have."

"Thanks Eve," Allison replied. "Now c'mon, let's go get some rest. I almost got bored in there."

Eve and her friends laughed as they joined the rush back to the barracks.


	10. Battle of Reach

Eight days later

The last eight days had been a lot more relieving than the first days of training. The task force had finished the training three days ago and were now going over their tasks when they were to be launched on their first mission.

Eve still found it hard to accept that she was still leading the task force. It was a really big risk. If this mission failed, not only the survival of the super soldiers could be at stake, but also the survival of the entire human race could be threatened if this mission was a failure.

Eve had constantly been going over maps and blue prints of the ship high command had given her. She didn't want one part of the ship to be left unchecked. She knew that even the slightest fault in the mission could have all of them killed. Her friends, however, were getting worried about her. There had been at one night where Anya had woken up to see Eve going over the blueprints of the ship. That was a four in the morning; Eve had been going over the blue prints and tasks for six hours! It wasn't until seven in the morning when Eve had finally stopped looking at the blueprints. She was really tired the next day! When the task force went for briefing for the mission, Eve fell asleep in her chair. Everybody noticed this when she leaned forward in her seat and fell off it.

In the barracks, Eve was lying down on her bed. Several blueprint sheets were folded up next to her on her bed. She had been looking through them for most of the day until she decided to have a break and fell asleep. Everyone else was in groups scattered around the room, talking amongst themselves.

**Reach Fermion remote sensing outpost**

Reach had many remote sensing outposts scattered across It's surface. Each one was designed to pick up any ships travelling towards Reach. Ever since the war broke out, they have been fully operational non-stop. Each remote sensing outpost had many control rooms. In one control room in Fermions upper floors, a worker on a computer looked at his computer screen. It had a line graph going across it. Suddenly, the lines shot up on the chart. Each time a new line appeared, it was higher than the last. The worker immediately noticed this.

"What the…?" he said.

He grabbed a data pad from a cabinet built into the computer panel. He looked through it hoping to find an answer to the high amount of energy just appearing out of nowhere. Finally, he found it. If any amount of energy was that high, it could only mean one thing.

The worker immediately typed in a code. The screen changed from a line chart to man in a high ranking uniform. Behind him was a set of computer panels, workers and several stairs that led to and from platforms.

"_This is captain Thompson of Gamma space station," _the man said

"Captain, this Fermion remote sensing outpost. Unconfirmed reports of an in system Slip space rupture." the worker told the captain.

"_Impossible, check your source," _captain Thompson ordered.

The worker typed in a code to check the energy sources to make sure there wasn't any interference. When he brought up a radar screen, he saw something blips on the screen.

"I'm reading multiple pings below the orbital defence grid," the worker said.

However, he attracted the attention of the workers around him. They came over to see what was going on.

"He's right!" a worker exclaimed. "There like ten pings! Now there's twelve! Fifteen!"

"_Oh, this can't be happening," _captain Thompson said as his face appeared back on the computer screen.

"There's no mistake, sir," the worker on the computer panel said. "It's them,"

Reach task force barracks

Anya, Bethany and Emily sneaked towards Eve's bed. Eve was laying soundly asleep. Her three friends wanted to make her jump.

"Okay," Anya said. "Bethany, get on the left side of the bed. Emily go to the bottom."

Bethany and Emily did so.

"Okay, on three," Anya whispered. "One. Two…"

"Don't even think about it," Eve said. A smile came upon her lips as she woke up.

"How did you know we were here?" Bethany asked.

Eve tapped her right ear.

"I have good hearing," she replied.

Suddenly, an alarm blared out throughout the building. The whole room went a dark red colour.

Eve got up and ran towards the barracks door. When she opened it, soldiers were running up and down the corridor. Some with weapons, others talking into radios. A general ran up to the door.

"Eve, get everyone out here!" he ordered.

"What's going on?" Eve asked the general.

"It's the Covenant. They're attacking," he answered.

Eve gasped. The Covenant were here. Looks like their mission was going to be cut short. Eve spun round so she was facing the inside of the barracks.

"Alright, everyone. Let's go. Let's go," she ordered.

"What's going on?" Matthew, who was at a bunk bed near the door, asked Eve.

"It's the Covenant," Eve answered. "They're attacking,"

As soon as Eve finished, everyone in the barracks immediately headed straight for the door. Eve ran out first. Everyone else followed. In the confusion in the corridors, many people got separated or ended up running the wrong way. Anya, Bethany, Matthew, Allison, Emily and Sophie managed to stay together as they ran down the corridor. They turned left when they came to an intersection in the corridor. The group found themselves outside the armoury. They ran inside to prepare themselves for the coming fight. The armoury was a big square room that was about one hundred and ten feet long and about seventy in width. There were two power generators that were fenced off. Scattered around the room where large crates with machine guns, grenades, pistols, you name it. There were about thirty soldiers in here, getting weapons or putting ammunition into the ones they already had.

Sergeant John was over by a crate at the other end of the armoury. He spotted the group.

"You lot, over here," he ordered. The group ran over to John.

"Right, you each have a BR55 battle rifle each," John said, handing each of the group a machine gun with a scope on it. It roughly weighed about eight lbs. "You also have a M6C Magnum pistol as a sidearm and two fragmentation grenades," John added, handing each of the group a pistol and two grenades.

"The Covenant have launched a full-scale assault on the planet." John explained. "We need to keep this base in our hands. If we can hold them off, there's a chance we might be able to hold off the Covenant long enough to evacuate the people."

"Thanks, John," Matthew said. John nodded.

"Good luck," he said.

The group nodded and ran out through a door halfway down the left wall of the room. They found themselves outside, where all hell was breaking loose in front of them.

In the air, there were UNSC fighters and Covenant Seraph fighters, truck sized fighters with a main cannon at the front, two spires on either side of the cannon and bulge at the top and bottom of the fighter, engaged in dogfights. Pelicans were flying in all directions, some being blasted out of the sky and Covenant drop ships, big ships with two L shaped sections that stuck out from a bulk-like part of the ship that led down to a turret and there was also a blue haze between the two L sections of the ship, were landing everywhere. One even landed a few hundred feet away behind some burning buildings.

"Over here!" someone shouted. The group saw a soldier waving at them. "You guys, over here!"

"C'mon," Eve said to her friends.

The group ran over to the soldier, who led them into a maze of buildings. After a few minutes they found themselves in a small house that must have belonged to a captain since, among the usual household stuff, it had pictures of a UNSC battle cruiser and a desk with papers of the ship's crew and missions.

"What are we doing in here?" Eve asked the soldier.

"I need your help," the soldier replied. "I'm Captain Robinson," he shook Eve's hand.

"Okay, captain," Eve said "What is it you need us to do?"

"The Covenant has launched a ground offensive against this base." captain Robinson explained. "They'll soon be crawling all over this place. We have to hold this area."

"Where are they coming in from?" Matthew asked captain Robinson.

"From the airbase and from the space research lab over the hill." captain Robinson replied. "The airbase is nearest, so link up with squad sixteen over by the medical outpost."

The group nodded and gave a salute to captain Robinson. It could be the last either of them would ever give. Eve then led the group back outside and through the maze of buildings once again. After a minute or two, the group found themselves outside the maze of buildings and back in the middle of the war zone. An explosion erupted nearby. A Seraph fighter zoomed overhead, pursued by three C709 Long sword Interceptor fighters, a two hundred and ten feet long and two hundred and forty five feet wide fighter shaped like a manta ray, the only difference being that there were two engine silos at the back of the fighter.

"Time to kick alien butt," Matthew said.

Eve led the group across the landscape. There were some trees and grass scattered about, but they wouldn't stand for long before a blast or bomb or explosion would tear them apart. Ahead of them, a set of buildings grew closer. When the group reached the buildings, a couple of soldiers inside one of the buildings led the group inside and pointed them to a window or hole in the wall caused by an explosion. Eve and Sophie were led upstairs to the roof.

"Good to see, guys," a soldier holding a SR S99C sniper rifle. The gun was about six feet long. Luckily, the soldier carrying it was about six foot three.

"Are you guys squad sixteen?" Sophie asked the soldier, who nodded.

"Yeah," he replied. "The wounded from the medic outpost are in the barracks just next door." The soldier indicated to a short, long rectangular building just next to the building Eve was on. "If the Covenant get in there, It'll be a slaughter."

"I see 'em coming," another sniper, who was lying down with his gun pointing out towards several dome buildings in the distance.

"Guys, they're coming," Eve whispered down the stairs.

Eve then joined the soldiers. She laid down and aimed her BR55 battle rifle so it looked like it was facing diagonal. The wait was tense. Eve began to count the seconds they were waiting._ One…two…three…four…five_. It seemed like forever as the group waited for the coming threat.

"I see them!" Eve heard Emily hiss from below. She was right.

One hundred feet ahead of the buildings, Eve saw the shape of Covenant soldiers coming heading straight for them. Eve recognized the small, lumbering Grunts. In the middle of the pack was the giant figure of the Elite. The Elite was a minor, same thing with the pack of Grunts he was leading. Twenty feet either side of the pack of Grunts were four minor Jackals, their shields held up in front of them.

"Wait for them to get within fifty feet," the sniper laying next to Eve whispered. "Then, we'll nail 'em,"

Eve nodded. She slightly raised her weapon, but stayed laid down. She knew that if one of the Jackals spotted her, the element of surprise would be lost. The Covenant squad got closer. They were seventy feet away. Then Sixty. Fifty five.

"Get ready," Eve whispered.

The group loaded their weapons and got their grenades ready. The Covenant wee getting closer. Eve could just make out the mandibles of the Elite as the aliens were forty feet from the house.

"On three," the soldier whispered to Eve. "One…two…"

BANG! A warthog armed with a mini gun turret drove out from behind another building about seventy feet away. There were three men in the warthog. A driver, a passenger and a soldier manning the turret. As soon as they were out of the maze of buildings, they were blasting away like hell at the Covenant.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Eve heard Matthew yell.

Things quickly got really bad when one of the Jackals fired a shot out of his gun. It hit the driver of the warthog, causing the jeep to flip over. The driver was dead and the passenger and soldier on the turret were thrown out of the warthog to the ground.

"DIE!" the warthog passenger yelled

He fired a burst of bullets from his MA5B assault rifle at the pack of Grunts. A Grunt yelled as it was hit several times in the head and upper chest, causing it to flip backwards and land on It's stomach. It was dead. The Elite growled and fired a blast from his weapon that hit the warthog passenger in the head, killing him.

The man on the turret had fallen onto the ground. He tried to make a run for the buildings but before he was even two feet away, a Jackal fired a blast at his leg. The soldier fell to the ground and yelled in pain.

"I'll get him," Emily shouted.

Before anyone could stop her, Emily ran out of the building towards the wounded soldier. Her gun raised, she was firing away at the Covenant troops. Another Grunt was hit and fell to the floor, dead.

"Emily, come back!" Allison shouted.

"I'll get her," Matthew piped up. Matthew ran from the building and took off after Emily. Emily had reached the soldier.

"Your gonna be okay," she said, hoping to calm the soldier who was clutching his leg tightly.

Emily picked up the soldier and place him over her shoulder. Matthew stopped a few feet away and began firing on the Covenant troops.

"GET BACK IN HERE!" Allison yelled.

Eve fired a barrage from her battle rifle at the Covenant. Several shots hit the Jackals' shields. Even though the bullets bounced off the shield, it stopped the Jackals from returning fire.

Matthew continued firing at the Covenant. He had taken cover behind the warthog, hoping to provide cover for Emily as she headed back to the buildings.

"AAAH!" a scream came from behind Matthew.

Immediately, he knew who that scream belonged to. Emily!

Matthew turned to face the buildings. Laying on the ground, at least twenty five feet from the buildings, was Emily. The soldier she was carrying was lying next to her, dead.

"Emily!" Matthew cried.

He ran towards his friend. He was scared that she, one his friends, was gone. Matthew skidded to a halt as he reached Emily. Thankfully, she opened her eyes. She was alive. Emily must have woken up from the shock because as soon as she opened her eyes, she grabbed her side and yelled in pain.

"Don't worry, Emily," Matthew said as he picked her up. "You'll be okay,"

"MATTHEW WATCH OUT!" Eve screamed.

Before Matthew could even blink, a blue explosion lit up the area. Everyone in the building and on It's roof darted for the floor. After a second or two, Eve lifted herself up from the floor. What she saw brought tears to her eyes.

Emily was lying dead on the ground. Matthew was still alive, but whatever exploded had caused a big hole in his bodysuit's leg. Eve saw a small wound where the hole was. Blood was starting to trickle from the wound, turning the ground around Matthew's leg with the wound a red colour.

Then, it got worse. The Elite, who had walked over Matthew, fired two shots from his gun at Matthew. Both hit him in the head. His head hit the floor, all life gone from his body.

Eve felt sadness run through her. She had just seen two of her friends die. It just felt like all life had been taken from her.

In blind rage, Eve took out her fragmentation grenades, pulled the pins and threw both at the Elite. The Elite didn't even see them coming. Both exploded, breaking through the Elite's armour shield and killing it. The Elite fell to the ground, dead.

"They got leader!" one of the Grunts squeaked. "Noooo! Run away!"

The two remaining Grunts turned and ran off, arms waving in air as if to signal any other Covenant headed this way to turn back. The Jackals, however, stayed. One of them charged up It's gun and fired. A ball of green plasma flew through the air and went through one of the buildings windows. It hit a soldier in the head, killing him.

Eve, Sophie and the snipers on the roof fired at the Jackals. All four Jackals were hit and fell forward onto the ground, dead.

Eve jumped down from the roof and ran over to Matthew and Emily's bodies.

"Matthew," she exclaimed as she reached his body, setting her gun down on the ground beside her.

Matthew wasn't breathing. Eve shook him slightly.

"No," she said. She wasn't going to give up. "C'mon Matthew. You can't be gone,"

"LOOK OUT!" one of the snipers yelled.

A huge creature stomped towards Eve. It was twelve feet tall with spikes coming out of It's head, thick armour over most of It's body, a huge sword/club on one arm and a massive cannon on the other. It was a Hunter. Another Hunter came out from behind the first Hunter. On both sides of the two monster aliens were a pack of Grunts numbering five each.

"Holy god," Eve whispered to herself as she looked up and saw the creatures heading towards her.

Suddenly, one of the Hunters charged up It's cannon and fired. A shot flew out to the barracks. It exploded, causing part of the roof and wall to collapse. The explosion also caused the ground to rumble. That must have been powerful.

The other Hunter charged up It's cannon and fired another shot. This time, it hit the roof with the snipers. An explosion threw a cloud of dust and rubble up into the air. Eve felt tears well up in her eyes again when the ceiling collapsed.

"No," she said weakly, a tear came out of her left eye and rolled down her cheek.

A CLANK caught her attention. At her feet was a sniper rifle that was thrown into the air when the building's roof exploded. Eve gritted her teeth in anger. She grabbed the sniper rifle, aimed it at the head of the Hunter and fired.

A shot went straight through the Hunter's head. It stopped for a second before it fell backwards onto the ground, making a slight rumble. Eve fired another shot that went through an exposed area of the other Hunter's skin just under It's chest armour. The Hunter fell forwards to the ground, dead.

"The Hunters are dead!" one of the Grunts squeaked. "Run away!"

"Not so fast," Eve whispered under her breath.

She threw the sniper rifle to the ground, grabbed her battle rifle and fired four bursts of ammo at the fleeing Grunts. Each one hitting and killing It's target.

When the remaining Grunts had fled, Eve turned and ran back to the building. When she reached it, she frantically began digging through the rubble. She hoped everyone was okay. She hoped her friends were still alive. If they were hurt, she would protect them or even take them back to the base's hospital. She wasn't going to leave them here.

Finally, Eve had found Allison. She had a big graze along her chest and several big bruises across her face. Eve put two fingers on her neck's pulse. She wad dead.

A tear came out of Eve's eye and rolled down her face. Another of her friends was dead.

_This can't be happening,_ her mind thought.

Already in the space of just five minutes, three of her friends had been killed. Eve hurt inside. These people were like her family and they were dead.

The pain only worsened when Eve found Sophie's, Anya's and Bethany's bodies under the rubble along with three other soldiers.

"I'm so sorry," Eve whispered to her friends' bodies.

Two nearby explosions shook the ground where the building once stood. Eve looked up. Two Seraph fighters had flown back up into the sky. It was obvious they had just fired a blast at the buildings surrounding the remains of the one Eve was in. And by the looks of it, they were preparing to dive again to fire another set of blasts.

Eve ran from the building as fast as she could. Just a few mere seconds later, a huge explosion threw her several feet through the air. Eve skidded across the ground as she painfully landed. When she looked up, she saw the barracks had a hug hole blown in It's side. The wounded! They were fully exposed! Eve got up and ran back towards the barracks. She could hear the Seraph's engines getting slightly louder. They were coming in for another attack. Eve ran faster and only just managed to jump inside as another huge explosion tore away even more of the barracks.

"Eve," a medic, lying on the ground, exclaimed. "Thank God you're here,"

Eve got up and was greeted by a horrific sight. There were two wounded laying down on tables just a few feet in front of her. One of the wounded had a big wound in his side, which the medic was struggling to stop a continuous flow of blood.

"Where are the other medics?" Eve asked the medic.

"They're dead," the medic replied. "Johnson got killed in the first explosion that destroyed the building's side."

"We need to get these wounded out of here," Eve said.

"Arrgh!" one of the soldiers gritted his teeth in pain as the medic injected a serum into the wound.

"Eve, get these wounded out of here." the medic said. "I'll cover you,"

Eve nodded and picked up the soldier with the wound in his side. She held him in one arm and then picked up the soldier that laid next to him.

"There's the exit," the medic said. The medic ran over to a door halfway down the left wall of the building and kicked it open. Eve ran outside, the medic right behind her.

"Where am I supposed to take these guys?" Eve shouted to the medic.

"There's a medic post in the armoury," the medic shouted back. "Take 'em there. I'll cover you!"

Eve could see the armoury's roof on the other side of a recon post. She put all her energy into her legs. She wanted to save these two wounded. Suddenly, a burst of ammo exploded behind her. Eve managed to look over her shoulder to see the medic firing at a pack of minor Grunts being led by a major Grunt. One of the minor Grunts fell to the ground on his side, dead.

"Keep going!" the medic shouted at Eve.

Eve kept on running, the burst of the medic's gun still ringing in her ears. All of a sudden, it stopped. Eve had reached the recon post. She took one more look behind her. The medic was lying dead on the ground. Two minor Grunts had been killed, but the other three, including the major Grunt, were heading straight for Eve.

Eve ran. The armoury building grew closer and closer. Her mind was racing. She had to get back to the armoury. She had to save these two wounded. Suddenly, Eve went flying forward. She must have been running too fast, causing her to trip over herself. As Eve and the soldiers went crashing to the ground, the Grunts, who had ran after Eve, were only about twenty feet away and were preparing to fire. Eve saw them coming and closed her eyes. If she was to die, she wanted it too be quick and painless. She felt sorry for the soldiers who were having to put up with their wounds. Well, at least they were going to die quickly so they wouldn't have to live with the pain anymore.

The end never came. Instead, there was a barrage of gun fire from battle rifles, MA5C assault rifles and M6C Magnums. Eve slowly opened her eyes to see all the Grunts laying dead several feet away. Luckily, a team of UNSC marines had come out of the armoury and killed the Grunts just a mere second before the Grunts were about to fire. Eve stood up and watched the marines carry the wounded back into the armoury.

"Eve!" Eve heard someone exclaim. It was sergeant John "Good job getting those soldiers back here,"

"Thank you sir," Eve replied.

Sergeant John then noticed something.

"Where's the rest of your squad?" he asked her.

Eve gave him a sad look. She looked like she was going to burst into tears.

"They're dead," Eve answered weakly. "They were killed trying to hold back the Covenant,"

John sighed and placed a hand on Eve's soldier.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry, Eve." Eve sniffed.

"It's okay," she replied. "What are you going to do with the wounded?"

"We're going to have to evacuate them," John said. "We can't hold Reach for long. The president of Reach has ordered any BnL battle cruisers to evacuate the planet with as many wounded as they can."

"Sir," a soldiers shouted as he ran out of the armoury. "Sir, we've got reports of Covenant ships getting into position above the planet. High command thinks they're about to glass Reach."

John went wide-eyed. The Covenant were going to glass the last main UNSC stronghold before Earth itself. This couldn't be true. There were still thousands of military and civilian personal on the planet. They wouldn't stand a chance if the Covenant glassed the planet.

After a few seconds, John came to his senses.

"Order two Pelicans to land over here and take us to the Axiom." John told the soldier.

"Already have, sir," the soldier replied. "Here come the Pelicans now,"

The soldier pointed upwards behind John and Eve. The two looked where he was pointing to see two large truck sized ships coming in for a landing. Eve, John and the soldier moved back a few feet to give the Pelican some landing space.

"Alright," John said. "Eve, you get on one of the Pelicans and help set the wounded down on the seats."

Eve nodded and climbed into one of the Pelicans. A few seconds later, UNSC marines started running out of the armoury, many of them holding wounded comrades. A medic carrying a wounded soldier ran over to Eve's Pelican and handed him to her.

Eve was uncomfortable looking at the soldier whilst she set him down on one of the Pelican's seats. He had bandages over his arms, neck and there was a big mark in his uniform around his stomach. Eve shuddered and walked back over the Pelican's entrance to pick any other wounded. As Eve was putting the soldiers down onto the Pelican's seats, each new soldier she would put on the seats would more messed up than the one before. Probably the worst was the second before last soldier. He had blood stained bandages over his eyes, massive holes in his uniform that were caused by near miss grenade explosions and a bandage over his arm which John had told Eve had been in a fire.

Just as Eve set the last wounded soldier on the Pelican's seats, John ran up to the Pelican and climbed in.

"Alright, let's get outta here," he said.

The Pilot pushed on the ship's throttle. The Pelican rose up into the air and flew forward. Eve had a perfect view of what was once a surface UNSC base. Several buildings were on fire, crashed Pelicans, Seraph fighters and Thunderbolt Interceptors were scattered all over the place and there was still fighting going on between UNSC forces and Covenant in or around buildings.

"_Pelican Charlie 325. This Echo 415. We've got task force soldiers and are heading straight for the Axiom," _Eve and John heard the pilot's radio say.

Eve looked out the back of the Pelican and saw another Pelican a few hundred yards away following her Pelican.

"Copy that Charlie 325," the pilot replied. "We have one task force soldier and multiple wounded onboard."

"_Echo 415! You have three Seraph fighters approaching on your six. Evade! Say again, evade!" _a voice said out of the pilot's radio.

An explosion in mid air shook the Pelican Eve was on. She looked out of the back of the Pelican, her shock was overcome by fear.

Three Seraph fighters flew over a burning Pelican that was struggling to stay airborne. That Pelican was the one that was following Eve's Pelican to the Axiom.

"_This is Echo 415! We have taken heavy damage to our engines and the Pelican's rear!" _

BANG! Another explosion erupted from the back of the Pelican. It began to spin around widly in the air.

_"Mayday! Mayday! This is Echo 415! We are going down! I repeat, we are going dow…!" _

The Pelican crashed into the ground and skidded to a halt. Almost immediately after hitting the ground, Covenant forces charged out of nearby buildings and fired on the crashed Pelican. Eve saw two soldiers return fire on the Covenant.

"We have to go back and get them!" she shouted to the pilot.

"We can't!" the pilot shouted back. "We have to get to the Axiom."

"We can't just leave them, here!" John shouted, marching up to the pilot.

"Listen, sergeant!" the pilot growled, poking John in the chest. "I have five wounded onboard this thing. You and that task force soldier are only ones who can protect me and the Pelican from the Covenant. I'm sorry, but we have to get out of here. The Covenant will start glassing the planet soon."

Eve sighed sadly. She faced the wall of the resting area and pounded her fists against it really hard. John walked up to her.

"Eve, I'm sorry," he said.

"It's okay," Eve replied. "I just don't want to be at this alone,"

"You won't be," John said, trying to comfort her. "You have us UNSC soldiers to help you,"

"No, I mean me being the last super soldier," Eve told John, standing up straight. "I don't want to be the last super soldier,"

John sighed.

There's a lot of things in this war nobody wants," John told her.

"_This is corporal Miguel. If anyone can hear me, we have reports of Covenant ground forces at the main base! Tommy, cover that building.!" _a soldier's voice shouted on the pilot's radio.

"Good thing we left," John said to Eve.

"_There's thousands of them! Grunts, Jackals and their warrior Elites. They're massing near the armoury!" _

An explosion was heard in the background, followed by screams and alien gunfire.

_"Tommy's down! Get a damn medic! Jesus Christ, they've breached the damn perimeter. Fall back! Fall back! If anyone can hear me, the Covenant are massing near the armoury. Be careful. They have Seraph fighters and drop ships."_

John looked up at Eve with a defeated look on his face. He couldn't believe this was happening. They had thrown everything at the Covenant to stop them and still nothing worked. Eve felt the same defeated in her eyes. Reach was lost. Another defeat for UNSC, for BnL and for humanity.

"That's it. We've lost. Reach is going to fall," John said to Eve.

"Sir, the Axiom is in sight," the pilot shouted to John and Eve.

John and Eve walked up to the cog pit and looked out through the window. In the distance was a huge ship parked on a UNSC battle cruiser landing pad. There was the Axiom, the UNSC's best battle cruiser and one of the flagships of the UNSC fleet.

The Axiom had been built several years before the war began. After it was completed, the ship needed a good crew. So, some of BnL's best engineers, soldiers, scouts, pilots etc came to work in the Axiom. Already within the first few months of It's launch into the BnL fleet, which was shortly after the war began, the Axiom had established a reputation for itself. Mainly because it had destroyed three Covenant CCS battle cruisers during a space battle over Lupo.

"_This is corporal Miguel. If anyone can hear me, the Covenant are preparing for a counterattack on the main hanger." _a voice said from the pilot's radio.

"_Samuel, Danny, I'll take up position here, you guys cover the left flank. Alex you cover the right."_

_"Sir, they're pulling back," _a voice in the background said.

"_What! I…I don't believe it. They're retreating! The Covenant are pulling back! I repeat, the Covenant are pulling back! All UNSC for…hang on. I see a light in the sky. What the…OH GOD NO! THEY'RE GONNA GLASS THE PLANET! EVERYONE GET THE KZK…"_

A huge explosion drew Eve and John's attention to the Pelican's entrance. A large purple light, in the shape of a cylinder, had hit the ground. What was terrifying about it was that the cylinder was expanding. And destroying everything it touched!

"Pilot, speed up!" John ordered.

"We're nearly there, sir," the pilot said. "One mile."

The Pelican's speed grew as it neared the Axiom. When it was about a thousand feet away from the Axiom, the pilot could, just about, see several large rectangular-like holes in the sides of the ship.

"I see the hanger!" he exclaimed. "I'll try and land,"

"Don't try and do a normal landing, you'll have to crash land," John said to the pilot.

"But, sir," the pilot protested. "We'll probably destroy the Pelican,"

"Well we can't do a normal landing." John replied. "If we do, by the time the hanger doors have closed, the Axiom will be gone,"

The purple cylinder had grown to about three miles wide and had destroyed everything it touched. The crash site of Echo 415 had just been hit.

"Sir, the Axiom's hanger doors are closing!" the pilot shouted.

John looked out through the cog pit window and saw a large steel door ascending from the top of the launch bay.

"Speed up!" John shouted.

The pilot pushed the throttle to full. The Pelican shot forward, causing Eve and John to go crashing to the floor.

"We're almost there," the pilot exclaimed. "Two hundred feet! One hundred! Hang on!"

The Pelican was just outside the hanger. But the door had almost fully closed. There was very little space, but the pilot pushed the throttle to maximum and headed straight for the hanger.

That was a string of luck. The Pelican only just managed to get into the hanger, missing the doors by less than a few metres. The Pelican skidded across the hanger floor until another Pelican brought it to a halt.

"Another happy landing," John said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"You guys!" a worker in a control room above the hanger floor shouted. "Get in here, quickly!"

"C'mon," Eve said. Eve, John and the pilot ran out of the Pelican and up to the control room via some stairs near a platform. The worker directed the three to some seats and told them to strap themselves in.

"It's gonna get really bumpy," the worker told the three.

The Axiom's bridge

There was a frenzy of activity going on in the Axiom's bridge. Workers on control panels had stopped on them and were strapping themselves in. Captain McCrea, a tall man in a UNSC navy captain uniform, was checking everyone's straps were on correctly before he sat down on a seat in the middle of the bridge and strapped himself in.

"The ship's engines are a full power, sir," a worker said, looking at a holographic screen of the ship's engines.

"Let's fly," captain McCrea replied.

One of the workers leaned forward and typed in a code on the control panel. A holographic screen of the Axiom appeared in front of him. In the corner of the holographic screen were the words AUTOPILOT ACTIVATED.

Suddenly, there was loud rumbling sound. Then, the ships shook violently. After this, everyone on the bridge felt the ship rise with great speed. Metallic shades lowered over the windows, darkening the room. A light from each of the control panels turned on, brightening up the room quickly. It felt like one day had ended, the night had come quickly but as quick as it came it was gone, only to be replaced by another day.

After several minutes, the shaking stopped. The crew felt like something was pulling them out of their seats.

"**Artificial gravity activated**." the bridge's autopilot computer said.

At once, everyone fell back into their seats again. The metallic shades over the bridge's windows rose upwards. The crew found themselves staring into a black sky. White lights were visible in the far way distance. They were in space.

The crew of the bridge quickly released the straps from themselves and went back to their controls panels. The ship was several hundred thousand kilometres above the planet.

"**Autopilot Deactivated**," the bridge's computer said.

"Captain, the Covenant have twenty four CCS battle cruisers heading straight for us," one of the workers on the control panels said.

"Get the ship away from Reach," captain McCrea ordered.

The workers began typing in codes and pushing throttles to get the ship away from Reach as fast as they could. After a few minutes, they did it. And with seconds to spare. The Axiom flew away from the planet and the Covenant fleet. But the twenty four ships sent to destroy the Axiom did not stay behind to glass Reach, but, instead, they headed out into space after the Axiom.

Captain McCrea and the crew watched as each Covenant ship would emit a purple light down onto Reach. Even though they were millions of miles from Reach, they could perfectly see the impact points because when the purple light would hit the surface, a fire would erupt. The crew felt defeat sweep through them like water against rock. Reach, a planet heavily defended by UNSC forces, the BnL fleet and even the task force specially formed to be the main line of defence in the battle. But neither of this was a match against the Covenant's planet glassing technology.

"_We've lost Reach," _captain McCrea thought. _"We're defeated. It's over,"_

"Sir, what are we to do now?" one of the workers asked.

That question stuck out in McCrea's mind. What were they to do now? Were they to flee back to Earth? If they did, they would bring the Covenant fleet to Earth and thereby end the war quickly and bring total defeat to the human race. What if they fled into space? If they did, they would probably save Earth. But what of themselves? They could never survive out in space for more than a few years. And they couldn't keep running either. The Covenant would eventually lead them into a trap and kill them.

After a silent moment or two, a triumphant look appeared on captain McCrea's face. He turned to his crew.

"I'll tell you what we're gonna do," he said. "We're going to stay in space and fly away from Reach. Not towards Earth, but in the opposite direction. Into the unknown."

"But, sir.." a worker piped up, but captain McCrea cut him off.

"I know It's risky. But if fly back to Earth, we will have done the Covenant's work for them. I am not going to accept defeat yet. We are going to stay in space and fly as far away from Earth as we can. There is a strong chance that the Covenant fleet will most likely follow us because they will believe we are fleeing back to Earth,"

The bridge's crew looked at each other. In a way, they knew their captain was right. But they also knew that his plan was suicidal. They knew that the Covenant ships were always faster than BnL ships even when they weren't in slip space rupture. However, most of the crew did not want to give up yet. As Stalin had said to his troops during the Battle of Stalingrad _"Stalingrad will be defended to the last man, the last round of ammunition and the last drop of blood," _That is what the crew wanted to do. They wanted to fight on until they were truly defeated. They were NOT going to admit defeat now.

"What is your course, sir?" one of the workers asked.

"Continue heading in this direction," captain McCrea replied. "It doesn't matter where we go, we are not giving up yet,"


	11. Survivors at what cost?

Location: White House, Washington D.C, Earth.

Later that day

A frenzy of activity had erupted at the White House. They knew something major had happened at Reach, but they didn't know what. President Samuel was in his office going over reports of what might be the cause for the activity. He was told that a Covenant vessel had attacked Reach with a full force army. Samuel did believe this, but he knew something was wrong about the attack. Why only attack Reach with one vessel? All the other planets the Covenant had attacked were attacked by massive fleets of Covenant ships. So why only one? Just then, a knock came at his office door. Samuel got up, walked over to the door and opened it. A general was standing here. He looked a right mess. He was panting, parts of his uniform were torn at the sleeves and the chest and he had a bandage around his right arm.

"General, what the hell happened to you?" Samuel asked.

"Mr president," the general said, stepping inside the office and closing the door. "Reach was attacked."

"I know Reach was attacked," Samuel replied. "I have a report on my desk saying that a Covenant ship attacked Reach earlier today, but was destroyed."

"No, sir," the general said. "I have just escaped from Reach in the _Michigan_. We were attacked by a fleet of over seventy Covenant ships. They've killed hundreds of thousands and they have glassed the planet,"

Samuel shook his head. He chuckled slightly.

"No," he said. "No, this can't be true. This has gotta be some sort of joke, right?"

"Excuse me, Mr president?" a woman secretary said as she opened the door to his office. "Excuse me, sir. I…" she trailed off when she saw the general.

"What the hell happened to you?" she asked.

"Don't worry, Chelsea," Samuel told the secretary. "The general here just had a lucky escape from the Covenant,"

"Yeah, your damn right it was a lucky escape!" the general shouted.

"Sssh!" Samuel hissed. "Keep your voice down. Do you want to attract attention to yourself?"

"Is everything alright?" a voice asked.

Two politicians stood in the doorway next to the secretary.

"Jesus Christ, Parker. What the hell happened to you?" one of the politicians asked

"He had a lucky escape from the Covenant," the secretary replied.

"Oh, well loads of people have had lucky escapes as well," the other politician said.

"Not like this!" the general hissed at them.

"Okay, general," Samuel said. "I think you've had your joke,"

"IT'S NOT A JOKE!" the general yelled. "I am telling you, we were attacked!"

The general took several deep breaths to calm down.

"Look, Mr president," he said after a few minutes. "Do you have the task force member mainframe?"

"Yes, why?" Samuel asked.

The general took out a small square object that was no bigger than a keyboard key.

"Could you please get it out," the general said.

Samuel got up and walked behind his desk. He pressed a button at the side of his desk. A small computer screen came out of the middle of his desk. A small tower with a square disk slot rose up out of the desk and stood alongside the computer screen.

The general put the square inside the disk slot. At once, the computer screen sprang to life. Icons began to appear on the computer screen. There were thirteen icons along the top and five that went down the side. Each icon was in the shape of a human.

"This is each member of the task force," the general said. "Their suits were built with a life device. It's kind of like a tracking device, but it doesn't track them. What it does is that it tells us whether the member is alive or dead."

"How can you tell?" Samuel asked.

The general typed in a code. All the icons flashed green.

"That is how we can tell," the general answered. "If they flash green, they're alive. If they don't, they're dead."

"What is they're damaged?" Samuel asked the general.

"Even if they are damaged, the suit will still transmit a signal to tell us whether the member is alive or not." the general answered.

The general typed in another code. This time, none of the icons flashed green.

"And this is today," the general said to Samuel.

Samuel went wide-eyed. He was overcome with shock and confusion. He couldn't believe it. Every single member of the task force had been killed. That task force was the only hope for humanity. And now it was gone. It would only be a matter of time before the rest of humanity would follow.

"Mr president, are you alright?" the secretary asked.

"The general's right," Samuel said. "Every member of the new task force was stationed at Reach. He's right. It's been glassed and the task force has been completely annihilated."

"What are you saying, Mr president?" one of the politicians asked.

"I'm saying, Reach is gone and the new task force is gone as well." Samuel replied. "The Covenant will be heading straight for Earth. Order everyone on the planets in the second Sol to this part of the universe."

"Mr President…?" the general said.

"Get all the defences on all the planets in this Sol ready," Samuel ordered. "There's no doubt the Covenant will bring their entire fleet to witness our defeat,"

"Mr president…?" the general repeated.

"What is it?" Samuel asked the general.

The general pointed to the computer screen. Samuel looked at the screen. The icons were still there.

"What's the matter?" Samuel asked the general.

"Count the number of icons, sir," the general answered.

Samuel thought this was a strange thing to do, but he did so. He began to count the number of the icons. It was only when he got to the last five that he noticed something strange.

_Sixty…Sixty one…Sixty two…Sixty three…Sixty four…what the?_

"There's only sixty four here," Samuel said to the general.

"That means there must be one out there still." the general replied.

"But I thought you said that their suits would transmit the signal even if they were damaged," Samuel said to the general.

"They do, but I have no idea what's happening here," the general told him.

"Sir!" someone exclaimed.

A worker squeezed past the gap between one of the politicians and the door and ran up to the desk.

"Mr president, we have contact with the Axiom," he said.

"The Axiom," the general said, aghast. "That ship was at Reach."

"It managed to get away just as the Covenant were glassing the planet," the worker told the general.

"Take us to him," Samuel ordered.

The worker nodded and ran out of the office. Samuel, the general, the secretary and two politicians followed. The worker, eventually stopped outside a door. The worker opened and stepped inside the room. The room was another radar room. Workers were either on control panels or going over past reports from other parts of the BnL colonies.

"Mr president!" another nearby worker exclaimed. Everyone got up out of the seats and gave a salute to the president.

"At ease, everyone," Samuel said. Everyone lowered their hands.

Samuel followed the worker over to a control panel. The worker typed in a code on the control panel's keyboard just below a computer screen. Seconds later, a face appeared on screen. It was captain McCrea.

"Mr president," McCrea said, giving a salute. "It's good to see you,"

"Good to see you to, captain," Samuel replied. "I'm glad you managed to escape from Reach,"

"Not only have me, the crew and several hundred soldiers escaped from Reach," McCrea told them. "We also have Eve with us,"

All of a sudden, Samuel felt like light had been shone in a dark place that hadn't seen light for years. Samuel had just heard that McCrea had Eve.

"That's great," Samuel said, happiness inside him again. "We still have a chance. We can…"

He trailed off. Samuel had only just realised that Eve was the last member of the task force alive. Also, he knew that the entire E.R organization was on Reach today. It felt like that he had just come out of the darkness into the light to escape. And then, as quick as it came, that one chance to escape was gone.

"McCrea," Samuel said. "The entire task force had been destroyed, except for Eve,"

"Your kidding," McCrea said, unable to believe what he had just heard. "No. It can't be true,"

Sadly, Samuel shook his head.

"It is true," he said. "Also, the entire E.R organization, including members and command, was on Reach when you were attacked."

"Didn't Eve have loads of friends in the E.R?" McCrea asked.

Samuel nodded. A sad came upon his face.

"_How are we going to tell her?" _he thought. _"She'll be devastated,"_

"I'll let her know," McCrea said. Samuel nodded.

"Thank you, McCrea," Samuel replied.


	12. Tragic Truth

One hour later

Axiom

Location: 627, 300 billion miles from Reach

After talking with the president, McCrea had left the bridge and was searching the Axiom for Eve. He was…no, he** had** to tell her. He was just worried about how he was going to break it down to her. It was hard telling someone that a close friend of theirs was dead. It was especially hard telling something like that to Eve. Her friends were like family to her.

Whilst McCrea had been searching the ship for Axiom, a worker had quickly spoken to him and given him a book that had belonged to an E.R member who was a friend of Eve. Apparently, she had given the book to the soldier for him to give to Eve (Eve and the task force were going to be on the Axiom for the mission) about an hour before the Covenant launched the attack on Reach.

McCrea had reached a holding room's door. He had searched all the holding rooms along the ways to and from the hanger, near the engine room and even the holding rooms where any captured Covenant would be taken to. This one was where Covenant were to go. Can't hurt to try. McCrea knocked on the door.

The door opened to reveal sergeant John standing there.

"Captain," he said, giving a salute.

"Good to see you, sergeant," McCrea replied. "Do you have Eve with you?"

"Right here, sir," John said, standing aside to give McCrea a clear view of the room.

The holding room was about the size of a classroom. In the middle was a table with several hover chairs around it. Eve was sitting on one of the chairs near the door. She got up when she saw the captain.

"Captain," she said, giving a salute.

"Good to see you, Eve," McCrea replied.

He turned to John.

"I need to have a private word with Eve," he said.

John already knew what the captain meant.

"Okay, captain," John said, walking out of the room.

It was just Eve and the captain alone.

Captain McCrea took a seat across the table from Eve. Eve sat down in her own seat. McCrea cleared his throat and set the book down on the table.

"What's that?" Eve asked.

"It's a book from one of your friends," McCrea replied. He handed the book to Eve.

Eve opened the book. She was amazed. It was her friend Rachael's scrapbook. It had various photos of her friends, both from the E.R and the task force. She smiled at one of the pages that had a photo on a timer camera. In the photo was Eve and all her friends smiling at the camera. The photo was taken on Takra, six months before the war began.

"Some great memories Rachael saved here," Eve said to herself.

McCrea sighed. Now it was the hard part.

"Eve," he said. "I have something to tell you,"

Eve looked up at McCrea.

"What is it?" Eve asked. McCrea sighed again.

"I'm sorry for telling you this, but you're the last member of the task force," McCrea said. "Every other member has been killed. It all rests on you. Your our only hope."

Eve went wide-eyed and clapped a hand over her mouth. Then, she sighed and gave McCrea a sad look.

"I can't do this on my own," she said. "I can't be the last member of the task force. There's got to be someone else out there," Sadly, McCrea shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Eve," he said. "We've checked the entire database. All members, except you, are dead. And there's something else as well."

"What?" Eve inquired.

"The entire E.R organization was on Reach when the Covenant attacked." McCrea answered.

"No," Eve replied weakly.

"Yes," McCrea said. "The E.R is completely destroyed. But about an hour before the attack, one of your friends from E.R gave us that book. She wanted you to have it. To remind you of your friends in the E.R when you were away."

Eve rested a hand on her head above her eyes. A small tear came out of her left eye, rolled down her cheek and fell onto the photo of Eve and all her friends. McCrea sighed. He knew this was going to happen.

"I'll leave you alone to pull yourself together," he whispered to Eve, who replied with a nod.

McCrea got up and walked out the room. Before he closed the door, he took one last look at Eve. He sighed and closed the door.

Eve slowly got out of her seat and rested against the wall of the room. Then, she slid down to the floor and brought her legs close to her chest. She rested the book on her legs and looked at the photo of her and her friends. The ones she had known for years. Ones that had been her friends. Her family. They were gone.

After a while, Eve put her face on the book and silently began to cry.


	13. Cryotube to bridge

The next day

Axiom

Location: Unknown

The Axiom had travelled far in the past day since Reach was destroyed. Word of the attack had quickly spread across the rest of the colonized planets. Everyone was truly horrified of the defeat. Many people were thinking it was already the end for the human race.

Things hadn't gone so well onboard the Axiom in the past day either. McCrea had returned to the holding room, where he left her earlier that day, to see that she had fallen asleep sitting on the floor with her back to the wall, her legs close to her chest and her head resting against the scrapbook. They took her to the ship's barracks and left her on a single bed. She didn't talk much when she woke up the next morning.

Eve still couldn't get over the fact that her friends were dead. She sorely missed them. They were like family to her. She just wished that none of this ever happened. She just wished that this war would suddenly disappear into thin air and all her friends and other humans would come back to life. Then, she realised that wishing wasn't going to get her anywhere in this war. Eve had reported to the task force training room not long after she had woken up. She still wasn't speaking a lot. Even when the workers were testing her suit in a special cryo-tube, she would reply to them with a nod.

The Axiom's bridge

Captain McCrea was going over radar readings from the ship's radar system. The readings were on a holographic line graph. Each level was just a horizontal line. No bumps or ups or downs or anything. McCrea sighed.

"We made a narrow escape for now," he said.

"Yeah," a nearby worker replied. "But the question is, captain, for how long?" McCrea nodded.

"I don't think we'll be lucky for long," he said. McCrea walked over to the bridge's window to give himself a break from going over radar readings. He looked out at the millions of stars. He smiled for a brief moment. Even in war, there are beautiful things that still survive the fighting. He remembered when he was little, about ten years old. He had been raised in a village outside the city of Chicago. There was a big field near where he used to live. Almost every night he would go out into the field and lay down on the ground and look at the stars. "If only this war wasn't happening," McCrea thought. "I could watch the stars like I used to,"

A nearby worker got out of his seat to check the holographic line graph. As he reached it, the line on the graph, suddenly, began rising high. The worker knew exactly what this meant.

"Jesus," he whispered under breath. "Captain, over here!" he shouted.

McCrea snapped out of his trance and ran over to the worker.

"What's the matter…what the?" he said. McCrea was shocked to the bone when he saw the line graph. The line just kept rising and rising. It showed no sign of stopping.

"Put the ship on full alert," McCrea ordered.

Task force training room

Meanwhile, half-way down the ship, Eve was in the task force's training room.

The training room was about the size of a small field with two walkways along the left and right walls. In the middle of the room was a tall pillar that had two cryo-tubes on both sides. Eve was in one of them. At the end of the room, in the direction Eve's cryo-tube was facing, there was a door that led out into a corridor. Above that door, near the ceiling, was a set of windows that went from one end of the room to the other. Behind the windows was a control room with two workers inside it. Another worker was going over a data pad he had in his hand.

"Michael," a voice said. It came from one of the workers who was at a control panel. "Michael, we've got red alert on the ship."

The worker standing next to Eve's cryo-tube looked up at the control room and nodded.

"Alright, let's open her up," he said.

The worker behind the control panel nodded ad pressed a button on the control panel. Almost immediately, there was a hissing sound. The cryo-tube's door raised until Eve was fully visible again. Eve groggily opened her eyes.

"That was quick," she said.

"Sorry for the sudden awakening, Eve," the worker standing next to her cryo-tube said. "We're short of time. We've just received a red alert from the captain. We'll have to rush this,"

"Okay," Eve replied.

"All we need to do is test your bodysuit's shield," the worker in the control room said.

"Please follow me to the energy shield test station." the worker said.

Eve followed the worker to a large space on the other side of the pillar. At first, she looked around to see where the energy shield test machine was. Then, the floor broke in two and disappeared under other sections of the floor. A platform rose out of the hole with a large machine on it.

The machine was split into two sections. One was a large tall block like section with controls and a small door that led into the machine's inside wires and controls. The second section was connected by a small, thin, rectangular-like piece of the machine. It was like a cryo-tube, except that this one looked like it had been cut in half and it had a holographic meter floating next the cryo-tube's window. It had the word Power level at the bottom of the hologram.

"Alright," the worker said. "Just crouch until your underneath the cryo-tube then you stand up again,"

Eve nodded. She crouched low and moved under the cryo-tube. Then, she stood up. The glass on the cryo-tube was really thin. Just looking at it made Eve think it must have been thinner than a piece of paper.

"Okay, start the test," the worker said to the two workers in the control room.

One of the workers nodded and pressed a button on the control panel. Inside the cryo-tube, Eve saw several see through rings appear round her body. They grew large and larger. Then, there was a sound that sounded like something charging up. Just then, Eve's holographic shield meter appeared above her wrist. The level rose in the meter until it hit the top. Then, it went a red colour. A beeping sound quickly emitted from her suit. The power was overcharging itself. Eve shut her eyes tight, fearing that something was going to happen.

Then an explosion, that sounded like a Covenant charged weapon had fired, erupted inside the cryo-tube. After a second or two, Eve opened one eye to see that she was perfectly fine. Then, her holographic shield meter appeared again, only this time there was no level in the meter and it was flashing red. Then, a level began to rise in the meter and it continued to rise until it hit the top.

"Good work," the worker said. "You can come out now, Eve,"

Eve crouched low and moved out from under the cryo-tube. She then stood up.

"Alright," the worker said. "We'll find you some weapons so that-"

_"Bridge to cryo-tube, this is captain McCrea. Send Eve to the bridge immediately."_ captain McCrea's voice said over the ship's built in intercom.

"Captain, we'll have to skip Eve's special weapons training-" the worker protested.

_"On the double, crewman,"_ McCrea cut him off.

"Aye aye, sir," the worker replied. He turned to Eve.

"McCrea's getting jumpy. We better get moving. We'll start your weapons training later," he told her.

"Okay," one of the workers in the control room said. "We'll leave the weapons training for now,"

"Yeah," the worker in the cryo-tube room replied. "You better get to your pod, Sam,"

Suddenly, there was a pounding on the other side of the control room's door. Both of the workers in the control room shot round to face the door. BOOM! The door exploded. Before the two workers could react to the situation, an Elite stood in the doorway with a gun in his hand.

The weapon the Elite was carrying had two sections. A top and a bottom. From a side view, it looked like the mouth of a creature. There were three parts of the weapon that connected the two sections together. There was a section at the back of the two sections that the Elite was holding onto. Then a middle section that looked like it had been cut in half from the top to bottom and then a front section that had two small pincer-like power charges stick out, one from the bottom and one from the top. From a side view, they looked like the teeth of a creature. This weapon was known as a Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle, or a nickname for it, a Plasma Rifle.

"SECURITY!" the worker behind the control panel yelled.

The Elite fired a round out of the gun. Several light blue rounds shot out of the weapon and hit the two workers. One took a hit between the shoulder blades, the other was hit in the head. Both fell to the control room's floor, dead.

As the Elite went to leave, it saw Eve in the cryo-tube. It walked forward towards the control room window, baring It's mandibles. Eve saw the pure hatred in the Elite's eyes. When given the order, the Covenant troops were to kill every human on a ship. Even if they knew valuable information, that was not accepted as an excuse. The Covenant troops followed orders without asking any questions.

The Elite bared It's mandibles at Eve, which she took as a growl, before it turned and ran out of the control room.

"C'mon, we've got to get the hell out of here!" the worker exclaimed.

The worker ran over to a door at the left wall. The door automatically opened.

"This way," he said to Eve.

Eve followed the worker out of the cryo-tube and down the corridor. The two came stopped outside another door half-way down the corridor. The door opened half-way.

BOOM! An explosion on the other side of the door threw Eve and the worker to the floor. Eve groaned as she lifted herself up from the floor. When she saw the worker, she knelt down next to him and put two fingers on his pulse. He was dead.

Eve sighed and laid the body down on the floor. Another explosion threw Eve to the floor.

When she got up, she saw a hole in the left wall. There were two large pipes that ran across the floor through the wall. The gap was big enough for Eve to jump over. A nearby door automatically opened, allowing her to escape from the room.

Who knew she would be saved by a pipe room.

As Eve came out into the corridor, she saw a blast door, that was shaped like half a hexagon, that was half-way from reaching the floor. Eve ran over to the blast door and ducked as she went underneath it.

Eve found herself in a huge corridor with pillars and tall ammo-storing barrels, which had hexagon-like tops and bottoms and their middles were either blue, red or yellow with white stripes, scattered up and down the corridor.

"RUN!" someone yelled.

Eve looked down the left end of the corridor. Just as she did, a blue explosion lit up another hallway that went to the left, if you were walking down the corridor, and a UNSC worker's body flew into a nearby wall.

"Joey!" another worker shouted.

Another worker ran round the corner and down the corridor towards Eve. Two light blue rounds whizzed past him and hit the wall.

"I got you covered, man," Eve heard another voice shout.

Another worker ran past Eve . In his hand was an M6C magnum. The worker stopped and fired several rounds at two Elites as they ran round the corner into the corridor. The Elites returned fire, but the worker took cover behind a nearby pillar.

Then, two hexagon shaped doors, one the bottom and one the top, came out of the wall and were preparing to separate the humans from the Elites. One of the Elites ran forward, maybe trying to kill the worker with the pistol. Eve dived towards the Elite and grabbed him by the waist, causing him to fall to the floor. The worker quickly fired several rounds at the Elite. Each round weakened the shield until the last, which broke through the shield and killed the Elite with a head shot.

A small boom indicated that the doors had shut. They were safe.

"They're right behind us!" someone down the other end of the corridor shouted.

Three more workers ran towards Eve. A light blue round flew out from behind a pillar and hit the worker at the back of the fleeing three. The worker yelled in pain and fell to the floor. The back of his uniform began to turn a dark red colour as blood seeped from the wound. Another round flew into his head, killing him.

"Clear those blast doors," one of the two workers said.

A blue object flew through the air and landed near the two workers. One of the workers dived away from it. However, the other failed to notice it. The object exploded and threw the worker through the air before he landed on the floor near Eve. Eve rushed over to the worker and put a finger on his pulse. He was dead. Killed by whatever that blue thing was.

"Look out!" the unarmed worker shouted.

Two more Elites ran out from another corridor attached to the one Eve was in. As soon as they saw Eve and the workers, they fired a barrage of light blue rounds at them.

The worker with the gun ran forward, incredibly going through the barrage of light blue rounds, and fired at the Elites. The Elites' shields shone as they were hit but the Elites made no attempt to take cover. They had fought against many humans before and even gone through entire barrages of bullets and still their shield had been intact, although only just on some occasions.

Then, the two cut in half hexagon shaped doors appeared several metres ahead of the two Elites. Both Elites ran forward. Unfortunately, the doors closed just as the two aliens were about two feet from them. Eve and the workers heard a loud bang on the other side of the door. The Elites had run right into the door.

"Are you guys going to be alright?" Eve asked the worker with the gun.

"Yeah, we'll be fine," the worker replied. "The Elites won't be able to break through those doors."

Eve nodded and set the dead worker she was checking onto the floor. She then ran towards the door that just closed. There was a smaller door on the left wall. It automatically opened and Eve walked through to find herself in a dark corridor. Luckily, there was just enough light to see the door at the other. Eve ran towards the door.

She didn't know what had happened next. One moment the door was opening for door, the next she found herself on the floor. Then, it struck her.

An Elite had been on the other side of the door. Before Eve had even seen him, the Elite had pushed her to the floor and was now standing over her, a Plasma Rifle in his left hand. Eve stared at the weapon. The Elite had It's finger on the trigger, so all he had to do was push and that would be the end of her. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.

Suddenly, a barrage of gunfire erupted from the corridor where the Elite had come from. Eve slowly opened one of her eyes to see two UNSC soldiers in the corridor, where the Elite was before Eve had opened the door, firing down the corridor that carried on to the right. The Elite's roar echoed down the corridor. Then, silence.

"You okay?" one of the soldiers asked Eve as he helped her up.

"Yeah, thank you," Eve replied.

"Eve, captain needs on the bridge, quick," the other soldier said.

Eve nodded and walked into through the doorway into the corridor. Before she carried on to the bridge, Eve quickly looked to the right to see a door with a red light on it. The Elite must have ran into that room and the door had locked on.

Eve ran to the left. She took a turning that led her into another wide corridor. However, she saw a barricade of ammo barrels turned on their sides. There were two workers, each holding an M6C Magnum, and a soldier, who was holding a battle rifle, taking cover behind the barrels. There was an open door that led into one of the ship's armouries next to the soldier. Eve could see several wounded in there, so these troops were trying to save the lives of the wounded.

Eve dived forward behind the barricade. As she did, two light green blasts flew over her head, missing her by mere inches.

Eve looked through a small gap between two barrels to see an Elite and four Grunts firing at the barrels. One of the workers quickly got up and fired a few rounds before ducking behind the barrels again.

"We're never gonna drive them back!" one of the workers shouted.

"The blast doors are closing," the soldier shouted. He was right.

The two half-hexagon shaped doors appeared again. As they began to close, one of the Grunts took out a light blue object that had blue fire coming out of it. He raised his arm and threw the grenade.

Then, the Grunt realised something. Where was the grenade? He looked down at his feet to see the grenade lying there.

"Uh oh," the Grunt squeaked. The blast doors closed. Seconds later, an explosion was heard from the other side.

Eve, the two workers and the soldier saw the whole thing.

"Are Grunts usually that stupid?" she asked.

"Yeah, something UNSC forgot to tell you," one of the workers replied.

"Eve, the captain needs you on the bridge ASAP," the soldier said. "You better follow me,"

The soldier ran into the armoury; Eve followed.

The armoury had a ten feet tall, three feet wide computer panel that stretched from a few feet from the doorway Eve was standing in to the other end of the armoury, again a few feet from that doorway. On the left wall were all sorts of UNSC weapons. Magnum's, assault rifles, battle rifles, grenades, you name it. On the other side of the computer panel were ammo barrels and barricades that looked like oversized shields. UNSC soldiers were resting against these barricades. Many of them were either clutching their arms, sides or legs with blood seeping from the gaps between their fingers.

Eve felt sorry for these soldiers. They might be waiting a while before they got any medical attention. How she wished she could just place a hand on the wound it would be healed completely.

"Eve, c'mon," the soldier leading her to the bridge called.

Eve ran to the other end of the armoury. The door here had been blown open. Pieces of it were scattered near where it once stood. A worker ran left past the doorway. Light blue rounds shot after him. Eve ran out into the corridor and followed the worker. She could hear the Covenant forces behind her but she didn't dare look back. She just wanted to get away from the fighting here quickly.

Then, Eve saw the worker, that had run past the door, again. Only this time, he was with another worker and they were both carrying M6C magnum's The two workers ran past Eve and began firing down the corridor at the Covenant. A Grunt's yell was heard. That was another one dead.

The soldier turned into a smaller corridor; Eve followed him. She found herself at the Axiom's bridge, which was full of workers on control panels. "Captain's at the front of the bridge," the soldier said before running back out into the main corridor.

The bridge had a large cube section that filled the centre of the room. However, this cube section had been cut in two and was filled with workers. Eve watched a worker go over damage report on the ship as she walked past his control panel. Then, she saw a wide window that must have been the size of van. Captain McCrea was standing at this window, looking out into the darkness of space. A small cylinder panel was next to him. Eve walked behind captain McCrea.

"Captain," she said. McCrea turned to face her.

"Good to see you, Eve," McCrea replied, shaking Eve's hand. "Sorry for calling you up here so quickly. Things are very hectic at the moment,"

Suddenly, everyone on the bridge was thrown forward. Eve grabbed the captain to stop him from hitting his head on the cylinder panel.

"What the hell was that?!" McCrea shouted.

"Boarding craft," a nearby worker replied. "Captain, there's boarding craft all over the ship."

"Sir, the ship's main cannon is offline," another nearby worker shouted.

"Damn," McCrea said. "The ship's main cannon was my last offensive option."

"Captain, look," Eve said, pointing out into space.

McCrea stared out into the never ending darkness of space. He saw a large blue planet in the distance. Not Earth, no. This planet looked much bigger and the entire surface was a light blue colour with dark blue patches scattered everywhere.

Then, McCrea's eyes rested on something else he saw. It was a like a circle shaped thing. It looked like…a ring? It was like a planet itself this ring. What the hell was a ring doing in space, anyway? Could it be Covenant?McCrea sighed.

"Alright, I'm initiating Cole protocol article 2. We're abandoning the Axiom." he said.

"Are you evacuating the ship as well?" Eve asked the captain. McCrea shook his head.

"No, Eve," he replied. "You need to get off this ship. Your very valuable to us now,"

"While you do what, go down with the ship?" Eve protested.

"In a matter of speaking," McCrea told Eve. "This ring thing we've found. I'm going to try and land the ship on it,"

Eve rested a hand on McCrea's shoulder.

"With all due respect, captain," she said. "This war has enough dead heroes,"

"I know that, Eve," McCrea said, pushing Eve's hand off his shoulder. "But the destruction or capture of you would be devastating. You need to get off this ship. But so does this,"

McCrea turned to face the cylinder panel. He rested his hand on the top of it. The top of the cylinder broke in two. A small square object rose out of the panel on a mini platform. McCrea took the square object in his hand.

"Eve, this data cord is of vital importance to us," McCrea said to Eve, placing the data cord in her hand. "It will fit into your suit. Just put it on your shoulder. Oh and take this,"

McCrea took out a small circle object the size of a fingernail and put it in Eve's right ear. Whist he was doing this, Eve placed the data cord on her right shoulder. At first, it just laid there like a dead animal. Then, it began to morph with the suit and sank into the suit's shoulder like quicksand.

"You'll be able to hear any transmissions from our soldiers with this ear sized radio in your ear," McCrea told her.

"So, captain, what does this data cord hold?" Eve asked the captain.

"This data cord holds very crucial information." McCrea explained. "Which is why you are to get it off this ship. Keep it safe from the enemy. If they capture this data cord, the Covenant will learn everything. Force deployment, weapons research. Even the location of Earth."

"I understand," Eve replied.


	14. Escape from the Axiom

Captain McCrea reached into his trouser pocket and took out a M6C magnum. He handed it to Eve.

"Kill any Covenant on your way to the escape pods," McCrea said to Eve. "Help out our soldiers in any way you can,"

Eve nodded.

"Thank you, captain," she replied.

McCrea nodded.

"Good luck," he said.

Eve nodded once more before turning round and walking back round the giant cut in half cube and out of the bridge's entrance. When she was out in the corridor again, she found the blast doors closed and a small nearby door, on the bridge's entrance side of the corridor, wide open. Eve ran down the corridor after this door. She suddenly stopped when she saw the body of a UNSC worker lying on his back, one of his hands lying outstretched across the corridor. There was blood all over his uniform, so he must have been hit a lot. Several inches from his outstretched hand was an M6C pistol. Eve picked it up and took out the ammo and loaded it into her weapon.

Suddenly, she froze. She could hear… voices? They sounded squeaky and a little high pitched. Then, she realised they were Grunts. Eve gripped the gun tighter and put a finger on the trigger. She then took two paces forward so she was at the corner of the doorway. She could see the Grunts laying against their arms which were being held up by their hands that were clenched into fists on the floor. Eve raised her weapon so it aimed at the nearest Grunt, which was a minor. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

A burst of gunfire erupted in the corridor. A yell then followed. Eve had scored a head shot on the Grunt, killing it. The other two Grunts hadn't seen where that had come from and were running down the corridor towards two closed blast doors. Eve rushed out of her corridor and raised he gun at the fleeing aliens. Two more bursts of ammo, followed by two more yells erupted from the corridor once again. Both Grunts had been hit in the back and were now lying lifeless on the floor just a few metres away.

Eve reloaded her weapon with some of the extra ammo she had collected from the dead UNSC worker in the last corridor. Then, she heard shooting coming from somewhere. Eve walked towards the bodies of the dead Grunts and heard the shooting get louder. She then stopped outside a closed door with a sign above it that said Cafeteria. Eve rested the side of her head against the door to try and listen into what was unfolding on the other side of the door. She could hear male voices, bursts of ammo which sounded like from battle rifles and pistols. Then, she could gunfire from alien weaponry. She recognized them as Plasma Rifles and, possibly, Plasma Pistols.

BANG! An explosion literally blew up the door. Smoke and dust quickly filled where Eve had been standing just mere milliseconds earlier. Thankfully, whatever exploded was a few feet from away from the door and the door had shielded most of the blast. If whatever blew up went off on the door, Eve would most certainly have been killed. It was amazing to see that she had been thrown to the ground. Her worst injury; a whack to the head from when she fell to the floor.

Eve groaned as she picked herself up. As the dust cleared, Eve saw tall, bulky figures running about in the cafeteria. Elites. Eve got up and inside the cafeteria, where she greeted by a scene of chaos.

The cafeteria was full of dead UNSC and Covenant Grunts. Just a few moments before Eve heard the shooting, two squads of Covenant Grunts, being led by Elites, broke into the cafeteria where several UNSC soldiers were keeping guard on the way to the bridge. One of the Elites fired a blast at a soldier with a battle rifle. The soldier crumpled to the floor as the blast hit him in the face. A worker, several feet behind where the soldier was standing, fired several rounds at the Elite from his M6C magnum.

Eve aimed her pistol and fired two shots at the Elite firing at the worker. The bullets bounced off the shield, making it shine, but the Elite turned to fire at Eve. Big mistake. The other soldiers saw their chance and fired at the Elite, destroying It's shield and killing it.

The other Elite, however, had ran to the other end of the cafeteria. By the time the UNSC soldiers spotted him, he was already preparing to fire again, and he wasn't alone. Two squads of Grunts, four each, and two more Elites had broken through two other doors that led into the cafeteria. They were armed with plasma rifles, plasma pistols and grenades.

The Covenant fired on their enemies, who retaliated with their own gunfire.

Eve took cover behind an overturned bench. The shooting of guns and explosion of grenades echoed around her. She even, just barely, survived a grenade explosion that erupted a few feet away on her side of the table.

Eve quickly rose up from behind the table and fired several shots at the Covenant. Two of the Grunts were hit and flipped over onto their stomachs, dead. She also managed to disable one of the Elites' shields. The Elite was then gunned down by the other UNSC soldiers.

"They got leader!" one of the Grunts yelled. "Let's get outta here!"

Instantly, the Grunts began to scatter in all directions. The other Elite tried to round up the Grunts to continue fighting, but to no avail.

Eve had an idea.

"Everyone, throw your grenades," she shouted to her comrades around the cafeteria.

The soldiers obeyed and took out their grenades. They threw them at the Covenant soldiers. At once there was a tremendous explosion. The fragmentation grenades must have caused the Covenant's grenades to go off as well. A cloud of smoke and dust rose in the cafeteria, blinding everyone.

After a few minutes, the cloud cleared. The soldiers were greeted by sight of death. All the Covenant soldiers that were in front of them just seconds earlier were dead.

"Thanks for your help, Eve," a nearby soldier said.

"My pleasure," Eve replied.

Eve ran out of one of the destroyed doors and into another wide corridor. She ran down a smaller corridor that she knew led to a nearby airlock, which was full of escape pods. She had to get on one of those escape pods and get off the ship quickly before she and the data cord were destroyed or captured.

As Eve ran into another wide corridor, she saw several dead marines and a few dead Grunts. There had been a battle. The UNSC had won because three other soldiers cautiously stepped out from behind a nearby ammo barrel, their weapons raised in case thy fought Eve was a Covenant soldier.

"Oh, Eve," one of the soldiers said, relieved. "Thank God It's you. We thought your were Covenant."

"What happened?" Eve asked.

"We were ambushed," the soldier replied. "We were guarding the airlock and a huge wave of Covenant just poured out of another nearby corridor and started blasting us. We were outnumbered, so we fled down here and managed to hold them off."

"C'mon, let's get to the airlock," Eve said.

Eve led the soldiers down the corridor. They soon came across two other UNSC soldiers standing outside a locked airlock door.

"Over here," one of them shouted.

Eve and her group of soldiers approached the two outside the door. BANG! An explosion literally ripped the door apart and sent both soldiers to the floor. Out of the airlock came a swarm of Covenant Grunts led by two Elites.

"Open fire!" Eve ordered.

At once, there was an uproar of gunfire. Eve and the UNSC soldiers' gunfire cut through the Covenant soldiers like a knife through butter. Within a few seconds, the Covenant that came out of the airlock were dead.

Eve rushed over to one of the soldiers that had been thrown to the floor by the blast from the airlock door. She put two fingers on his pulse. He was dead. She did the same with the other soldier, only to met by the same result of the explosion.

"We need to keep moving," Eve said to the soldiers behind her.

She led the group further down the corridor towards a large room. However, as they got closer, they could tell something was wrong. It became clear when they entered the room.

The room was a hexagon shape with a landing that went around the edges of the walls. There was another corridor that led off from the landing and there was a flight of stairs that led from the ground floor to the landing. What was wrong was that there was a battle going on between the Covenant, who were on the landing and UNSC soldiers, who were taking cover against the stairs or against pillars that held up the landing.

"Eve, help us out!" a soldier hiding behind a nearby pillar shouted.

Eve nodded and ran up the stairs to the landing. However, several Elites and Grunts saw her and open fired. Some of the shots hit Eve's suit. Thank God for the shield or she would be dead. However, she still had to stay behind cover. Like the generals told her, this shield would most certainly not be permanent on the battlefield. Eve reached the top of the stairs and fired at a pack of minor Grunts to her left. Two of the three Grunts flipped backwards, dead. The last one panicked and ran towards the Elite, which was a minor, like a child cowering behind It's mother. The Elite growled and fired a full burst out of It's gun at Eve, who, just barely, managed to take cover behind a railing, that was attached to the stairs, near the top of the stairs.

Eve fired a few shots from around the side of the railing at the Elite. Although they bounced off the shield like pellets being fired at an elephant, the Elite jumped behind a railing that stuck out from a blast door connected to the landing. The Grunt that fled behind the Elite was killed by gunfire from other UNSC soldiers underneath the landing.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Eve saw something big underneath the landing move. She looked in the direction she saw whatever it was move and quickly saw what is was.

A blast door was opening. Just visible through the gap, Eve could see three Grunts and an Elite.

"Guys, look out," she shouted, pointing to the blast door.

Just in the nick of time she shouted the danger to her comrades. Just as the blast door opened, the UNSC fired at the Covenant. In a matter of seconds, the Elite and three Grunts were lying on the ground, dead.

Eve looked back over at the Elite she was firing at only to see that the blast door he was near was open and now there were two Elites and four Grunts over by the blast door.

Eve loaded another clip into her gun. She turned to fire at the Covenant when she was, suddenly, charged at by one of the Elites.

The Elite grabbed Eve round the waist, sending her flying into the railing on the stairs. The railing only just withstood the impact. The Elite then grabbed Eve's neck and began to squeeze tightly. Eve clenched her fist and punched the Elite as hard as she could in the eye. The Elite, immediately, let go of Eve and staggered back against the railing on the other side of the stairs. Eve got up and got ready to strike at the Elite again, but stopped when the Elite looked up at her and clenched his hands into fists. His mandibles were baring along with his teeth. The Elite was ready to attack Eve again.

Suddenly, a burst of ammo erupted from the bottom of the stairs. Before Eve's mind could process what had happened, the Elite grabbed his side and staggered back against the railing. Purple blood quickly seeped from the wound, despite the Elite's attempt to stop the blood with his hand. Another burst of ammo threw the Elite sideways to the ground. He was dead.

Eve was lucky. A soldier with an M90 shotgun had managed to load his gun and fire at the Elite, stopping him from killing Eve.

"Thanks," Eve said to the soldier as he walked up to the dead Elite.

"Any time," the soldier replied.

"LOOK OUT!" one of the soldiers from the ground floor yelled.

Next thing Eve knew, a blue explosion lit up the entire room. The soldier was thrown forward onto the stairs. Before he could get up, the other Elite fired at the soldier, killing him with wounds to the head.

Eve grabbed the shotgun and fired at the Elite. Like his brother before him, the Elite almost fell to the floor, if he wasn't being held up by his knee. The Elite's shield had been destroyed, which Eve could tell because there was sparks showing up over It's armour. She fired another round at the Elite, who crumpled to the floor and lay still.

"Our leader's dead!" one of the Grunts squeaked. "Lets' get outta here!"

"Eve, go on. We'll deal with 'em," one of the soldiers under the landing shouted to Eve.

Eve nodded and ran into the corridor that led from the landing. She quickly had to stop when she saw a group of Covenant Grunts up ahead with a major Elite. Eve dived behind a nearby pillar. This was going to be hard. She still had the shotgun and her pistol, but it was the Elite that was causing the problem. He was a major, not a minor Elite like Eve had come across before. Also, one of the Grunts he had in his squad was a Grunt major. That wasn't too bad, but she knew that even if the Elite was killed, the Grunt major would still lead his brothers against Eve.

Just then, there came a stroke of luck for Eve. As she looked out, from the other end of her side of the pillar, she saw one of the minor Grunts walking towards her. In one hand he had a plasma pistol. In the other, a small blue ball that had an orangey/yellow colour in the shape of a lighting bolt. Eve had seen that thing before, but where.

Of course! That was a plasma grenade! She remembered Covenant weapons training. If that grenade was thrown, it stuck to almost anything. It's explosive power was incredible, but also dangerous. Then, she had an idea. She would wait until that Grunt was near the pillar, then she would pull behind the pillar kill him, take the grenade and throw it at the Elite. If the Elite was killed by a grenade explosion, that would be enough to send the Grunts running. It was suicidal, but she couldn't stay behind the pillar forever.

The Grunt was now two feet from Eve. Eve got ready like a tiger waiting to pounce. Just as the Grunt was about to turn, Eve grabbed him.

The Grunt kicked and squirmed to break out of Eve's grip, but it was no use. Eve then grabbed her pistol and brought it down with a thump on the Grunts' head. The Grunt ceased his kicking and squirming immediately. Eve didn't kill him, just knocked him out.

Eve pushed a finger down on the lightning bolt on the grenade. At once, it lit a sky blue colour and looked like it was on fire, but Eve felt no heat or pain. She stood up and threw the grenade at the Elite and ducked down again, covering her ears.

The entire corridor echoed with the sound of an explosion. Eve heard it clearly through her hands over her ears. After a few seconds, she looked up from behind the pillar.

The Elite was lying dead on the ground. The Grunts also lay still scattered no more than a few feet away from the Elite. Her plan had worked.

Eve got up and ran past the dead bodies of the Covenant. She turned right down another corridor. Suddenly, she slowed down as she came to a window that was looking out into space. Even though she was in the middle of a battle, Eve could help but smile at the beauty of the thousands of stars that shined in the distance. Like McCrea's thought earlier "_Even in war, there are beautiful things"_ ran through her mind.

Suddenly, she snapped out of her trance when a light blue laser shot past the window and hit the side of the ship, causing a small explosion. Another two lasers smashed into the ship and caused another explosion. This was bad. Not because the explosions were in the engine room or armoury or ship's hospital. It was because several metres below where the lasers hit was the airlock bay. There were ten airlocks, each one containing a drop ship. Suddenly, a drop ship flew out of one of the airlocks. The doors didn't even have time to open before the drop ship came shooting out like a bullet. A blue laser shot past the drop ship, literally missing it by a few metres.

Suddenly, another drop ship shot out of the airlock next to the airlock where the first drop ship just was. Another blue laser only just missed this drop ship and hit It's airlock, destroying it completely.

"_I've got to hurry!"_ Eve thought.

Eve turned right again and ran down the corridor. As she came towards a turning that led left towards the airlock, two light blue shots flew out of the next corridor and hit the wall.

"Bring it, freak bag!" a voice shouted.

Eve quickened her pace towards the turning. When she reached it, she was greeted by a scene of chaos.

A barricade had been placed halfway down the corridor. UNSC troops were on the side Eve was on. On the other side, at the other end of the corridor, were two major Elites with three packs of Grunts numbering four each. Two Grunts laid dead a few feet back from their Covenant brothers. There were also several dead UNSC behind the barrier or scattered around the Covenant side of the corridor. It was obvious this battle had been going on for some time.

Eve ran forward and ducked behind the barrier.

"What happened here?" she shouted over the noise of the battle.

"The Covenant ambushed us whilst we were evacuating this section of the ship," a nearby soldier shouted back. "At this rate, we'll never get to the drop ships."

"Don't worry," Eve said.

Eve stood up and fired two bursts of ammo from her shotgun. The bursts managed to kill two Grunts and disabled the shield of one of the Elites. However, she soon discovered, after firing a fourth round that killed another Grunt, that she had run out of ammo for her shotgun.

Eve dropped the shot gun and took out her pistol. She fired a few rounds at the Elites. Three roundstore through the shield of the first Elite. The Elite dived behind a pillar, that was part of the wall, and fired from that position at his human enemies.

Suddenly, Eve spotted a Grunt taking out a plasma grenade. If he set that off and threw at the barrier, her and the soldiers would be toast.

Before the Grunt could set the grenade off, Eve fired a round at the Grunt. However, the round didn't hit the Grunt. Instead, it hit the grenade.

At once, an enormous explosion lit up the corridor. Not only did the grenade that the round hit explode but all the other grenades the rest of the Covenant troops were holding went off as well. Within just a few mere seconds, the exploding grenades had virtually killed all the Covenant.

"We're clear!" Eve exclaimed.

"Thanks, Eve," one of the soldiers said as he climbed over the barrier.

Eve joined the soldiers as they climbed over the barrier and ran to the third airlock. As they drop ship's door opened, an explosion down the corridor that led off from the airlocks bay drew Eve's attention there. Three soldiers ran out of the corridor. Two light blue blasts hit one of the soldiers in the back. He fell forward onto the floor and lay still. One of the two soldiers ran past Eve into the drop ship. The other soldier jumped forward as an explosion several feet behind him almost blew him to pieces.

"Oh no!" he said, shielding his head with his hands.

Eve grabbed the soldier and threw him into the drop ship

"Now it will be a very good time to leave," she said as she ran inside the drop ship.

Eve pressed a button on a control panel on the wall next to the door. The door shut. Just in time as a swarm of Covenant appeared outside the airlock doorway. Eve turned and ran up to the front of the drop ship.

"Quick, let's get outta here," she said.

"Aye aye, Eve," the pilot, a young soldier in his twenties, said.

At once, Eve was almost thrown forward as the drop ship shot out of It's airlock.

The drop ship soared into space. Within a few seconds, the people on board could clearly see the Axiom through the entrance doors windows.

"We're disengaged," the pilot said as the ship soared away from the Axiom.

"We're gonna make it, aren't we, Eve?" a soldier sitting near the pilot asked. "I don't want to die out here,"

"We'll be fine," Eve said, placing a hand on the soldier's shoulder.

"Holy God," the pilot said.

Eve ran to the cog pit window and looked out. Through the window, Eve could clearly see the ring below the ship.

"What is that thing, lieutenant?" a soldier sitting next to the drop ship's door said as he looked out the window down at the ring.

"Hell if I know, but we're landing on it," the pilot said.

"Oh, no!" the soldier sitting next to the door shouted. "The Axiom! She's been hit!"

The pilot steered the drop ship back towards the Axiom but it didn't try and land on the ship. It flew underneath it.

"Look," Eve said. "The Axiom's accelerating. McCrea's going in manually,"

As the drop ship flew underneath the Axiom, more blue lasers shot into view of the cog pit window. Each one smashed into the Axiom, causing untold death and destruction to the crew onboard.

The crew then felt the drop ship descend. It was descending towards the ring. Below them was an Earth-like surface with huge bodies of open water and large landmasses that seemed to spread from one side of the surface of the ring to the other. That was the surface of the inside of the ring. The outside was like machinery. It was a grey colour with small lights that were only just visible.

"Heads up everyone, this is it!" the pilot announced. "We're entering the ring's atmosphere in five!"

As the ship descended closer to the ring, it began to shake slightly.

"Eve, are you sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" a soldier sitting nearby asked.

"I'll be fine," Eve replied as she grabbed hold of the pilot's seat.

The drop ship descended closer towards the ring. Closer to the unknown.


	15. The ring

Ten minutes later

The surface of the ring was not that mush different than that of Earth. There were canyons, valleys, rivers, mountains, forests and waterfalls. The ring had It's own natural beauty. It looked like the perfect place for animals to flourish and live their lives without any interference from other species.

In the sky above this beautiful landscape, a fireball was heading straight for a canyon that had a small river lead into a waterfall that seemed to pour maybe miles down into an endless sea. The fireball got closer to the canyon. It struck the top of several trees, almost throwing it into the side of a cliff.

"_We're coming too fast!" _

Four large parachutes bloomed out from the back of the drop ship in a desperate attempt to sow the ship down, but this did not work.

"_Damn! Airbrake failure! They blew to early! I'm losin' her! Brace for impact!"_

CRASH! The drop ship hit the ground. It made a tunnel in the ground as it skidded through it. The distance between the drop ship and the distance to the cliff that led to the endless sea decreased very quickly. Just when it looked like any survivors on board were faced with death, the drop ship came to a sudden halt. They were lucky as the distance to certain death was just under a few metres.

Inside the drop ship, the stench of death hung in the air. The pilot had been killed on impact. All the soldiers that were sitting in the ship were also dead. Eve was also visible. She was on her back. She wasn't breathing. She wasn't moving.

Suddenly, a stir came out of Eve. Then, she moved her hand onto her head. Her eyes opened groggily at first, then shot open like they had seen something frightening. Eve shot up. She looked around the drop ship.

"Where am I?" she asked herself.

Eve stood up and walked out of the drop ship's entrance. She went wide-eyed when she saw the natural beauty of this strange world. It looked a lot like Earth, where she had been born and raised. It reminded her a lot of home.

Eve snapped out of her trance when she remembered the rest of the crew. She didn't have to go back inside to see if they were alright. The force of the drop ship crashing was so violent that it had actually thrown several of the soldiers right out of their seats, through the ship's entrance and onto the ground.

Eve sighed. There was no point in seeing if they were alive. She knew they were dead. She had the super bodysuit but they didn't so there was very little chance of any normal soldier surviving a crash like that.

Eve picked up a battle rifle from one of her dead comrades. They were no longer going to need it.

Suddenly, Eve heard a whirring noise. It was faint, but her hearing picked it up easily. It was then she realised that it was Covenant because she knew there were no UNSC or BnL ships that made a small whirring noise.

Eve had to find somewhere to hide, but where? There were no rocks or trees wide enough. The drop ship wasn't going to be much of a hiding place. She had to find somewhere to hide!Then, she saw the river that went into the massive waterfall. The waterfall started a few metres back from where the cliff ended. There was a bridge going from the side of the river Eve was on to the other side of the river bank.

Eve didn't like this at first. There could be more Covenant on the other side of the river that were lying in wait to kill her but she had to take the chance. If she stayed where she was, she would be dead. Eve breathed in and ran across the bridge.

The bridge was a strange shape and colour. It was bronze colour that had wire and cable and strange markings engraved on It's surface. The main bit of the bridge was held in place by two big bulge sections. One connecting to Eve's side of the river and the other connecting to the other side of the river.

Eve made it across. Just in time as well. From behind one of the massive cliffs that made up the canyon a Covenant drop ship flew out. Eve threw herself to the ground in any of hoping the drop ship wouldn't spot her. As the massive ship hovered over her position, her level of tense reached a critical rate. She almost wanted to get up and run, but that would be suicidal.

Slowly moving her head, her eyes caught a glimpse of the massive proton cannon hanging down from the bridge of the ship. Only two bursts of that cannon would be enough to kill her.

Finally, fortune smiled on Eve. The drop ship flew over to the remains of the UNSC drop ship. Eve was lucky she wasn't spotted, but she soon would be. The Covenant drop ship was slowly lowering to the ground, most likely to drop off a squad of troops. Eve had to make a run for it before she was spotted.

Eve got up and ran up the side of the river towards a few small hills that led to a small pass. She stopped behind a tree about one hundred metres away from where she was a moment ago to check on the drop ship. Two Elites were running around the area where the drop ship crashed. With them were their Grunts, four each. All of the Covenant were minors.

Eve ran onward towards the hill. However, after just a few metres, she stopped and jumped behind a big rock. The reason was because not far ahead was another squad of Covenant. As usual, there were four Grunts being led by an Elite. They too must have seen the drop ship come down and were probably ordered to kill anyone who managed to survive and managed to get over to the other side of the river.

Eve partially peeked her head out from behind the rock. One of the Grunts was leaning against a tree. Then, it fell to the floor. The Elite ran over to the Grunt and kicked it. The Grunt shot up from the ground and fired a blast from It's plasma pistol thinking it was under attack.

Just then, one of the Grunts lumbered towards the rock Eve was hiding behind. Eve had an idea. She would surprise this Grunt, kill him, take his grenade and use it on the Elite.

The Grunt reached the rock and curled up into a ball-like position and began to snore. Eve would only have a split second to grab the Grunt, drag him behind the rock and kill him before the other members of his squad realised he was gone. Eve breathed in and got into position.

The Grunt let out a weak stir in his sleep. Suddenly, Eve grabbed him and pulled him behind the rock. Before the Grunt could wake up and cry for help, Eve whacked him over the head with her battle rifle. The grunt fell out of her arms onto the ground, dead. A plasma grenade fell off the front of the triangle armour on the Grunt's back.

Eve picked up the grenade and took aim. The Elite had just kicked the Grunt that fell asleep by the tree again for falling asleep again. Eve pressed her middle finger down on the plasma grenade's orange thunderbolt and threw the grenade at the Elite. Eve ducked down behind the rock and covered her ears.

An explosion ripped through the Elite's armour and killed him instantly. The Grunts screamed and ran away from their dead leader thinking they were next. Eve ran out from behind the rock and fired a burst of ammo at the Grunts. She killed all of them within a few seconds.

Eve ran onward towards the pass. When she reached it, she discovered two massive rocks that led down into another canyon. Eve slid down one of the rocks to the ground and ran down the new canyon. She came to a turning on her left. When she reached it, she was greeted by an astounding sight.

There was an enormous structure several hundred feet away in front of her. It had a large rectangular base with a cube shaped middle section that covered most of the top of the base On top of the cube was triangle shaped part of the building. However, there was a difference, which was that the triangle had been cut in half and must have been some sort of silo because every few seconds a sky blue beam would fire from the bottom of the gap between the triangles and disappear up into the sky. On the side of the base, Eve could see was a ramp that led up to the top of the base. Around one side of the structure were massive pipe-like sections that seemed to act like a wall that hadn't been completed. Eve was absolutely astounded and amazed by this awesome sight. She had never seen a structure like this before. Not even with Covenant technology, there was no way she had seen anything like this.

The structure was right in the middle of a wide valley. It looked like a bowl because around the edges of the valley were mountains with flat tops that had trees or hills on them.

Suddenly, a whirring noise filled her ears once again. Then, the shadow of a Covenant drop ship appeared and grew on the ground around Eve. Eve looked up and saw the massive ship fly out from behind a mountain and hover above the ground nearby. Two massive doors on the L shaped part of the ship opened and a squad of Covenant jumped down. The squad was made of four minor Grunts, a minor Elite and two minor Jackals. They hadn't spotted Eve, but they have spotted something else. Almost immediately after exiting from the drop ship, the Covenant fire on the structure. It is then when Eve sees UNSC troops hiding around the structure. They return fire on the Covenant.

Eve ran forward and fired bursts of ammo from her battle rifle. She managed to kill three Grunts and one of the Jackals before the Elites turned round and fired on her. Eve jumped behind a tree , but it wouldn't keep her covered for long. The Covenant blasts were ripping bits of bark off the tree trunk. Soon, Eve would be exposed and, most likely, killed.

Suddenly, a barrage of gunfire immediately ceased the Covenant's fire on Eve. Eve peeked her head out from behind the tree and saw the rest of the Covenant squad lying dead on the ground. A UNSC soldier was waving to her.

"Eve!" he called. "Over here," Eve ran over to the soldier.

As she got closer, she saw it was Sgt. John. He was carrying a battle rifle in his hands.

"It's good to see you, Eve," a nearby soldier said. "We thought we were the only ones who made it off the Axiom,"

John sighed.

"It's a mess, Eve," he said. "We're scattered around this valley. We called for evac, but I'm not sure if we got though to 'em,"

"Don't worry, sergeant," Eve replied. "We'll stay here until evac arrives,"

_"Heads up, I've got a Covenant drop ship heading in. Over here," _Eve heard a soldier say from the small radio inside her ear.

Whilst Eve was talking with John, a Covenant drop ship had managed to sneak into the valley. It was now hovering over a field on the other side of the structure.

Eve ran round the side of the structure with John. They watched the drop ship's doors open. Two Elites and six Grunts jumped out onto the ground.

"Open fire!" John ordered.

A barrage of bullets from battle rifles, assault rifles and pistols flew out at the Covenant. The Elites were hit and killed first. The Grunts, as usual, began screaming and running in different directions. The squad quickly killed them.

Just in time as well. As soon as the first drop ship flew up towards the mountain, another flew out from behind them and headed straight for an opening between some trees near the mountain's base.

"_Look sharp. Another drop ship comin' in,"_

Eve and John ran towards the drop ship. However, the pilot or someone in the ship must have seen them coming because as soon as they were within about a hundred yards of the ship, It's gun fired on them. Eve and John quickly jumped behind a crashed UNSC drop ship that was nearby.

"These guys are putting a real fight," John said.

"How many did you guys lose?" Eve asked.

"The pilot and three others," John replied.

He quickly rose up and fired a burst from his battle rifle at the Covenant before ducking down again. "Only me and four others survived."

"Watch it. Infantry on the ground!" a soldier from the top of the structure's base shouted.

Eve and John peeked their heads out from behind the structure. There were four Grunts, an Elite and three Jackals. All were minors. The Elite spotted the two and fired a burst from his plasma rifle at them. The Grunts, armed with plasma pistols, did the same. Eve pulled John behind the drop ship, just barely missing several blasts that hit the side of the ship.

The rest of the squad, who were on the top of the structure's base, fired on the Covenant. However, the Elite pulled out a grenade and threw it up at them. The soldiers yelled and jumped out of the way as the grenade exploded just a few inches from where they were.

Then, Eve had an idea.

"John, keep them distracted," she said.

"Where you going?" John asked her.

"You'll see," Eve replied.

Eve ran to the other end of the ship's side. John didn't know what she was doing, but he decided to play along. He fired a burst at the Covenant, hitting and killing a Grunt. The rest of the squad fired on him. This was perfect. With John keeping the Covenant distracted, Eve snuck out from behind the ship and ran behind them. She was going to surprise the Covenant. She chose a Jackal as her target. Eve tiptoed quietly up to the Jackal. If she alerted him, they would kill her.

Eve was now about three feet from the Jackal. She lunged forward and grabbed the Jackal. The other members of the squad saw Eve and fired on her. Eve wrenched the shield out of the Jackals' hand and used it to block the blasts from the rest of the Covenant squad. With them distracted, John and his squad fired on the Covenant, killing them all within a few seconds. Eve then killed her Jackal by firing a blast from his own gun at his face.

"Good work, Eve," John said.

"_Uh oh! Another bandit dropping in behind us! They're trying to flank us!"_

Whilst John and Eve were distracted, another Covenant drop ship had flown out from behind the hills, past the second drop ship as it took off, and landed on the other side of the structure. This time, the drop ship laid down a barrage of fire on the squad, who dived for cover to avoid the deadly blasts from the weapon.

Eve ran round the side of the structure and fired on the Covenant as they exited the ship. A Grunt was hit in the neck, causing It's blood, which was light blue, to seep out. A second round, from a soldier on the top of the structure's base, hit the Grunt in the chest. The Grunt fell sideways onto the ground, dead.

A minor Elite, who was leading a squad of three minor Grunts, fired on Eve. Eve jumped behind a nearby tree. The blasts from the Elite's weapon ripped apart the bark and one hit Eve's arm. Her suit shined a bright white colour. The holographic shield monitor appeared above Eve's left wrist. The level was still a green colour, but it was blinking red. After a few seconds, the holographic monitor disappeared. Her shield was fully recharged again.

Eve loaded another clip into her battle rifle and fired at the Covenant, using the tree as cover. The bullets from her gun pounded the Elite and his squad of Grunts. One of the Grunts was hit four times in the chest and head before it flipped backwards onto It's stomach, dead. Another Grunt quickly followed his comrades fate. The Elite took out a plasma grenade and threw it at Eve. Eve saw it coming and jumped away from the tree. Just in time as the grenade exploded and blew apart most of the tree trunk.

John, who had stayed behind to call evac again and was astounded to hear that a drop ship was on It's way to pick them up, ran out from behind the pipes next to the structure and fired on the Covenant. Another Grunt was hit and crumpled to the ground, dead. The Elite fired on him. Big mistake. Eve had gotten back up just as the Elite fired on John, who took cover behind a section of the pipes sticking out from the main pipes. With the creature's attention fully focused on John, Eve fired two bursts of ammo at the Elite. The ammo ripped through the shield and cut into the Elite's chest. The Elite fell backwards to the ground, dead.

"NOOOO!" one of the two remaining Grunts yelled. "Leader's dead! Run Away!"

The Grunts turned and ran in the direction of the valley entrance. Two major Jackals appeared from around the side of the drop ship. They watched their comrades flee. Both shook their heads and fired two blasts, each, at the Grunts. Both Grunts were hit and killed instantly.

"Samuel," a soldier on top of the structure's base said. "Use your sniper on 'em,"

A tall soldier carrying a 99C-S2 sniper rifle stepped forward at the base's edge. Below him was a thirty foot drop to the ground. The soldier crouched down and aimed his gun at the Jackals. He had to get them on he first shot. If he missed, they would know he was there and they would flee behind cover, which would make it harder for the squad to get them.

With the scope on the targets, the soldier pulled the trigger.

The two major Jackals fired a barrage at Eve, who was ducking behind the body of the first Elite the squad had killed when she arrived into the valley. The blasts made a horrible hissing noise as they collided with the body of their fallen comrade. All of a sudden, the hissing noise stopped. Eve waited a few tense seconds before peeking her head out from behind the dead Elite. Both Jackals were lying dead on the ground. The sniper's bullets had hit the Jackals and killed them instantly.

Eve stood up.

"Is that the last of them?" she asked herself.

She got her answer when a whirring sound filled her ears once again. The third drop ship took off as another flew out from behind the hills and headed straight for the field on the other side of the structure.

"Ah! How many of them are there?" Eve said as the fourth drop ship stopped over the field and began to descend.

Eve, John and the squad got ready to run to the other side of the structure when…

BOOM! An explosion erupted from the Covenant drop ship's rear. A second quickly followed on the ship's cannon. The drop ship spun round in the sky. The pilot of the craft was doing everything he could to keep control of the ship and stop it from exploding or crashing. A third and more powerful explosion blew the ship in two. The bridge section fell to the ground and exploded. The L section, which was being held together by a thin walkway inside the ship, collided with a tree. The L section fell to the ground and exploded. The tree it hit fell forward right onto the remains, crushing them.

_"This is Echo 419," _Eve heard a woman say out of her ear radio. _"Anybody order some fireworks?" _

A pelican flew out from behind the hills at the far end of the valley. This was the drop ship that was coming to pick up the squad.

"Thanks, Foe hammer," John said into a radio in his hand. "Nice display! Too bad for the drop ship,"

_"Roger. Let's get you guys home,"_

The pelican hovered about ten feet off the ground above the ground. The resting area was facing Eve. Several feet from the resting bay was a warthog that was attached to the pelican by two large metal pincers. One was holding the front of the warthog. The other was holding the back of the warthog. A UNSC soldier was manning the massive machine gun turret on the warthog's pickup truck-like rear surface.

The squad ran down from the structure's base and headed over to the drop ship. Eve watched the squad go by. There were two workers with them. No wonder they had taken cover and didn't come out until the Covenant were all dead.

When the squad was onboard the pelican, Eve was about to join them when she stopped all of a sudden.

"Eve, are you alright?" John asked.

"Sergeant, look," she exclaimed, pointing up into the sky.

John got out of his eat and jumped off the pelican. He looked up into the sky and saw what Eve was pointing at.

UNSC drop ships. There were three of them. They were in a triangle like formation, but each was headed towards the hills. By the looks of it, they were also suffering airbrake failure because there was fire shooting out of the back of the drop ships. It then shocked Eve to the bone when she saw them go over the hills and out of sight.

"If those drop ships make it down, the Covenant are going to be right on top of them," Eve said to John.

Eve then climbed into the ship's resting area and ran to the cog pit. She opened the door to see a woman with jet black hair sitting in the pilot's seat.

"Eve, did you see the drop ships come down?" the pilot asked her.

"That's what I came to see you about," Eve replied. "I need you to disembark your warthog."

"Your going after them?" one of the workers sitting in the resting area asked.

"Yes," Eve replied, turning to face the soldiers in the resting area. "There's a chance they might be alive. The Covenant are going to be going after them as well to kill any survivors. I'm also going to need one of you to come with me,"

"I'll go," a tall soldier with an MA5B assault rifle said, standing up.

"Good," Eve replied.

A loud thump brought everyone's attention outside. The metal pincers were now wide open and the warthog was on the ground. The soldier that had volunteered jumped down to the ground and got on to the passenger seat. John climbed back into the resting area.

"Good luck, Eve," he said.

Eve nodded and jumped down onto the ground. She walked over to the warthog and got into the driver's seat.

_"Good luck, Eve. Foe Hammer out," _

As Eve started the warthog's engine, the pelican began to ascend into the air. When it was about twenty feet from the ground, it flew off towards the far end of the valley. Within a few minutes, it had disappeared behind the hills.

The warthog's engine hummed as it sprang to life. Eve pushed her foot down on the accelerator and drove towards the far end of the valley. As she got closer to the far end of the valley, the ground began to drop into a pit. The walls were the mountain's bases that almost completely surrounded the pit. The hill was the only way to get in or out of the pit. As the warthog drove down the steep side of the hill towards the bottom of the pit, Eve noticed something on the mountain's base to her right. She pushed her foot down on the brake, bringing the warthog to an abrupt halt.

"What is it, Eve?" the soldier on the turret asked.

"Over there," she replied, pointing to the mountain base.

The other two soldiers in the warthog looked over to where Eve was pointing. All their breath drained from them when they saw it.

There was a large entrance into the mountain. But this was not like a cave entrance. No. This entrance was mainly made of metal and it went deep into the mountain. Around the side of the entrance were strange markings. Seeing this gave the three the feeling like they were being drawn into the jaws of a monster. "We need to go through that way," Eve said.

"Whoa! Stop!" the soldier on the turret exclaimed, grabbing Eve's arm. "We don't know what's in there,"

"We have to go through there," Eve said to the soldier. "If there are any survivors in those drop ships, they'll be depending on us to save them,"

"I know that," the soldier replied. "But what if we get lead into a trap. The Covenant could be crawling all over this place,"

"He's right," the soldier in the passenger seat said to Eve. "They might be waiting to ambush us. They could have a massive force in there,"

"Look," Eve said. "I want to save any survivors from those drop ships, alright! I've already lost all my friends from the battle on Reach! John is counting on me! I'm not going to let any more soldiers die under my responsibility, okay? If you two want to stay here, you be my guests but I'm going on."

"Sorry," the two soldiers replied in unison.

"Thank you," Eve said.

Eve pushed her foot down on the accelerator and drove right into the cave. Even though they were wearing suits designed to stand cold weather, they could feel the cold breeze against them. Eve shivered.

"Jeez…It's so cold," the soldier in the passenger seat said.

A turning came up ahead. Eve turned left and drove down another path. The warthog lights were lighting the way in front of them because it was so dark. Another turning came and Eve turned right. She drove down another path and came to a small path that led off to an empty gap between two massive steel walls. The gap had a small ramp that led down another long corridor. At the end was something big. A big hanger? A bridge? Eve didn't know if she should drive on at first. Then she realised that she had to. If not, the survivors, if any, of the drop ships would die. Breathing in heavily, Eve drove the warthog down the ramp and along the corridor. As the warthog got closer to the end of the corridor, Eve saw that this big room was more than she thought.

There was a high section of the path that went through this room, but stopped at the edge of a big drop. Either side of the high path were large blocks that had many controls and markings on them. Even the floor that they were on was filled with these strange markings. Eve had never seen anything like it.

"What is this place?" She asked herself.

"Look, over there," the soldier on the turret whispered, pointing over to a thin pillar like structure near one of the walls that ran around the side of this great place.

An Elite was standing there, looking out over the wide space that seemed to isolate where these enormous blocks and strange markings and structures from whatever it was the Elite was looking at. Several feet away from him, two minor Jackals were leaning against one of the massive blocks, their shields deactivated. Next to them, a minor Grunt was snoozing away whilst another was lumbering around near the pillar.

"I told you the Covenant were in here!" the soldier on the turret hissed.

"SSSH!" Eve hissed back. "If those Jackals see us, we're dead! We have to try and find a way out of this place,"

"Easy, go back the way we came!" the soldier on the turret whispered to Eve.

"I told you, we're going on to save those men!" Eve almost shouted at the soldier.

One of the Jackals scratched his chin and looked around the place he was in. As his eyes moved towards the entrance to this place, he spotted the warthog. And It's three occupants.

At once, he activated his shield and let out a screech and pointed over to the warthog. The other Jackal activated his shield, pulled his plasma pistol and fired on the warthog.

"DRIVE!" the soldier in the passenger seat yelled.

Eve slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The warthog wheels screamed as the machine shot forward like a bullet. The soldier in the turret seat activated the turret and fired on the Covenant. The immediate gunfire woke the snoozing Grunt, who screamed and jumped out of the way as the warthog crashed into the block he was snoozing against. The warthog passenger soldier fired a round from his assault rifle at the Grunt, killing it with hits to the head.

The soldier on the turret fired on the Jackals. Despite their attempts to cover themselves with their shields, the bullets broke through them and killed both Jackals. The Elite threw a plasma grenade at the warthog. Eve saw it fly through the air towards them and only just managed to reverse away from the grenade as it exploded. More Jackals and Grunts ran over from the other side of the high path, firing their weapons at the warthog in an effort to kill the three intruders.

Eve slammed her foot on the accelerator and drove towards the end of the high path. She suddenly saw there was no path or bridge that led through the massive space and slammed her foot down on the brake. The wheels screeched, leaving tire marks on the path behind them, as the warthog slowed to a stop, Just a mere four inches from the three's death.

Eve got out of the warthog and frantically looked around the place they were in.

"There has to be a switch or something somewhere!" she said.

The soldier in the passenger seat looked round as well. Then, his eyes rested on a walkway about fifty feet higher than the path they were on. On that walkway were two small panels. He saw something holographic hovering between the two panels. Maybe that was the switch! But how to get there? His eyes followed the walkway as it lead across the wall towards the entrance to this place and then disappear behind a metal wall. He then looked over at the ground floor of the wall and saw a small ramp lead up but, it too, was mostly blocked off from view by the metal wall.

"Eve," he said, pointing up at the hologram. Eve looked to where he was pointing. "That holographic thing up there. It might be the switch to help us across this place."

"Is there an entrance?" Eve asked him.

"Yeah, over there," the soldier answered, pointing over to the ramp in the wall.

The soldier on the turret fired another burst of ammo as the Elite, now backed up by two minor Grunts and a Jackal, appeared on the high path and fired at the warthog. Eve ran round the side of the warthog and jumped off the high path onto the floor. One of the Grunts fired two shots at her, but stopped when a round from the warthog's machine gun hit him in the face, killing him.

Eve reached the ramp that went up to the walkway. She ran up the ramp towards the walkway. However, when she reached the top, an Elite lunged at her.

Eve was pushed against the wall of the place. It was agony. It felt like she had been hit by a car and pushed up against a brick wall. As Eve crumpled to the floor, she got a view of her attacker. It was a major Elite, a more skilled and deadly opponent than the minor Elites. The Elite grabbed Eve's neck in one hand and held her over the edge of the walkway. All he had to do was release his grip and that would be the end of Eve. She would fall to her death. She could imagine it now. The sound of the air rushing past her. Then, the impact. Every bone in her body breaking, blood seeping out of her body. It was horrible to think about.

Determined to stop that from happening, Eve kicked the Elite in the stomach. Even through the thick armour, the Elite was winded by the impact. Immediately, he let go of Eve and grabbed his stomach. Eve grabbed hold of the walkway's ledge. The Elite staggered back a few steps, groaning in pain. This allowed Eve to pull herself up onto the walkway. However, just as she did, the Elite growled and looked up at her.

All of a sudden, it lunged towards Eve. Eve yelped and jumped sideways to the walkway's floor. The Elite went over the edge and fell down through a mist that hung in the air far below. Eve gasped as she got up. That was lucky. If the Elite grabbed her, both would have fallen to their deaths. Eve walked along the walkway towards the holographic panel. When she reached it, she was completely baffled. She had no idea what to do. Any one of the many switches on there could be to activate something that could help them get through this place, but which one? Eve breathed in and pressed an orange holographic switch.

What happened next made Eve go wide-eyed. Two large panels, that were about as long as a truck, came out from under the high path's edge and stopped in the middle of the large space. Then, they emitted a purple/pink light that began to form into something. Within a few seconds, the panels had formed an energy bridge that stretched from the high path and through the great space. Through another mist, Eve could just see the ends of two more panels that were also emitting a purple/pink light.

Eve smiled. She had activated an energy bridge. With this, they could now cross the great space and continue through the mountain to save any survivors at the drop ship crash sites.

Eve ran back along the walkway towards the ramp. She ran down the ramp and across the floor towards the high path. When she reached it, she saw the Elite, the two Grunts and the Jackal lying dead.

"Good work, Eve," the soldier on the turret said. "They almost got us,"

"They'll be more of them as soon as we're across," Eve replied as she got into the driver's seat.

Eve started the warthog up again. She drove the warthog across the energy bridge. She going quite quick. Even though the energy bridge was still activated and still going, she was worried that it would shut off all of a sudden. The three would go plummeting through the mist far below. They would follow the exact same fate as the major Elite that tried to kill Eve on the walkway and failed.

After a few seconds, the warthog reached the other side of the energy bridge. So they were in a chasm. Eve slowed the warthog down as they reached the other side. She was worried that the Covenant were waiting for them.

After driving across the high path, the three made it to the entrance to this side of the chasm. Eve looked around this side one last time to make sure they weren't being followed. When she was done with that, she drove the warthog into the tunnel.

"Do you think they'll be any survivors?" the soldier in the passenger seat asked Eve.

"I hope so," Eve replied as she turned right.

"Let's also hope the Covenant will only have a few troops at where they've crashed," the soldier on the turret said.

Just then, as Eve turned into another long tunnel, Eve's ear radio crackled to life.

"_This is drop ship…! Any UNSC forces that… hear us! We're hiding in a structure… near the edge of a cliff on the… side of…mountain. Covenant… everywhere. We're gonna try…them off! Any UNSC that can hear us,… help!"_

"We've got to hurry," Eve said.

She put her foot down on the accelerator. The warthog's occupants jolted as the vehicle shot forward all of a sudden.

"What is it?" the soldier on the turret asked.

"I have a radio in my ear," Eve replied. "I can pick up any of our transmissions. I've just picked up a transmission from a group of survivors from one of the drop ships. They're somewhere near a mountain. I don't know which but I hope they'll be on the other side of this mountain and we'll meet up with them."

As Eve turned right, they saw the tunnel's exit about two hundred yards ahead of them. The scene outside the tunnel was actually quite beautiful. There was a mountain with a little river that went into another great waterfall and trees were scattered everywhere. Another scene of natural beauty.

When the warthog reached the end of the tunnel, Eve surveyed the scene around them. There were no survivors or Covenant in sight. Eve sighed. Where the hell were the survivors?"Hey Eve, look," the soldier on the turret said, pointing near the mountain's, in front of them, base.

Eve looked over to where the soldier was pointing. A small pillar of smoke was just visible over a small hill on the other side of the river. Eve drove the warthog across the river and onto the top of the hill. She gasped at the sight she was.

It was one of the drop ships that she had seen come down earlier. By the looks of it, it had taken the impact very hard since the front looked like it had been crushed in a scrap yard and there was a small fire inside the remains of the ship since the smoke was coming through the smashed windows. Outside the drop ship's door were several dead UNSC soldiers

Eve got out of the warthog and ran up to the drop ship. She looked inside, but only saw the fire, two dead soldiers in their seats and the pilot who had been thrown backwards from his seat and was lying dead near the fire.

Eve sighed and walked out of the drop ship.

"Anyone left?" the soldier in the passenger seat asked.

"No," Eve replied. "Only dead, but not as many here-"

Eve trailed off and looked up at the mountain behind her. She then looked in the direction of the waterfall and saw a small path going through a section of the mountain that went off as a cliff next to the waterfall.

"I think I know where they are," Eve said.

Eve ran back to the warthog, got in and started the engine and drove the warthog towards the gap in the mountain. As they got closer, they saw that the gap was had a small hill. They also saw the edge of a cliff and it stuck out further as they got nearer to the hill. When the warthog reached the hill, the three were met by an astounding sight.

There were two structures on this side of the mountain. One was bigger than the other. The bigger structure was much like the first structure Eve saw back in the valley, but it was much smaller and it had a section of pipes going round the right end of it in a square shape. In the middle of those pipes, Eve could just about see a large cube shaped building that had a small ramp that led from the ground to It's roof.

The smaller structure was at the left end of the big structure. It was much like the building at the other end of the big structure, except it was slightly large, there were no pipes going round it and the roof had four strange missile shaped pillars in a square formation.

Then, Eve saw something move on the top of the big structure's base. At first she thought it was a UNSC soldier, then she saw green circular object appear. It was then she remembered the transmission she picked up when they were in the cave.

"_We're hiding in a structure… near the edge of a cliff on the… side of…mountain. Covenant… everywhere."_

This had to be the structure the drop ship survivors were hiding in! But the Covenant were here as well. Eve had seen only one Jackal. Who knows how many more Covenant troops would be here looking for the survivors. What was scared of was that there might be a Hunter here. If there was, she would have to get the squad out quickly or they would all be dead.

"Guys," Eve whispered to the two soldiers. "The Covenant are here as well. I need you to create a distraction. There might be a way to go inside this structure. They might have fled inside,"

"Okay, Eve," the soldier in the passenger seat said. "You get ready. As soon as we start firing, get in there quick. We won't be able to hold 'em off forever,"

Eve nodded and got out of the driver's seat. She ran towards a tree that was perched a few feet from the edge of the cliff near the structure with the missile pillars. Eve took cover behind it and waited. The soldier that was in the passenger seat got into the driver's seat. He drove the warthog along the mountain's base and disappeared from Eve's view behind the roof of the structure with the pillars.

Seconds later, there was an uproar of gunfire. Eve looked up at the top of the structure's base and saw the Jackal get hit several times before he fell to the roof's floor, dead. Two Elites ran out of the structure in front of Eve and disappeared around It's corner. Eve then heard blasts coming from the other side of the structure.

With her comrades in arms creating a distraction, Eve ran out from behind the tree and into the structure.

The inside of the structure was actually quite small. The room was only about the size of the average family car. It was in a square shape, but it also had the strange marking across the floor. Then, Eve noticed a doorway to her left. It had a small ramp that led down.

Maybe that's where the soldiers had retreated to! But the Covenant would have also sent troops down there to deal with them if they had. Eve wanted to go, but she had to check every part of the structure to make sure. Eve pulled her battle rifle and walked through the doorway.

Eve got very tense the further down she went. Like she had thought just moments earlier, if the survivors were down here the Covenant would have dealt with them and some were now probably forming an ambush to attack her.

When Eve was about a metre from the doorway at the bottom, she, suddenly, heard something. It sounded like…voices? Yes, they were! Eve stopped at the bottom of the doorway and loaded another clip into her battle rifle.

_"Try and contact evac again," _a voice said from inside the room the voices were coming from.

"_I just did! But I don't know if I can get through to them,"_ another voice said.

As Eve moved towards the door, her foot hit the back of her leg. Eve fell forward through the doorway and onto the cold floor.

"What the…!" someone yelled.

The first thing Eve saw when she raised her head was four guns being aimed at her by several soldiers next to a large bulb-shaped object in the middle of the room.

"Whoa! Don't shoot!" she shouted, holding her hand in front of her face.

The soldiers lowered their weapons.

"Eve," one of them said. He ran over and helped her up. "Sorry, we thought you were Covenant,"

"That's okay," Eve replied. "What happened?"

"When our drop ship crashed, the Covenant landed like fifty drop ships near us," the soldier explained. "We didn't want to flee inside the big tunnel because we thought the Covenant might have more troops in there, so we legged it in here. We called for evac, but I'm not sure if we got through to them,"

"Don't worry," Eve said. "We better secure the area."

A sudden screech at a doorway on the other side of the room made everyone jump. A Jackal had run down the ramp and had spotted the squad. Before he could activate his shield, one of the soldiers, armed with a M90 shotgun, fired a burst of ammo at the Jackal. The bullets ripped through the Jackal's chest, killing it.

"Look like they know we're here," the solider said.

Eve ran past the squad and through the doorway. She looked up the ramp and was spotted by a minor Grunt. The Grunt fired two shots at Eve. Both hit her suit, causing her holographic shield meter to appear and flash red again. Eve fired a burst from her battle rifle at the Grunt. The Grunt was hit and fell forward down the ramp, coming to rest at Eve's feet.

"C'mon," Eve called to the soldiers in the room. "We have to go,"

Eve stepped over the body of the Grunt and ran up the ramp into the square room. The soldier followed. When the squad came outside, they found themselves in the pipes section of the smaller structure on the other side of the middle structure.

"Wow," Eve said. "That was a big room. I can't believe we're on the other side,"

An explosion drew everyone's attention to the structure's corner. When they reached it, they were greeted by a scene of chaos.

Several Grunts, Jackals and an Elite were lying dead on the ground. The warthog was now lying on It's side. The soldier who took over driving after Eve ran inside the structure was lying dead on the ground. The soldier who was on the turret was firing up at the big structure's base top.

"Great!" one of the soldiers with Eve exclaimed. "You've got a warthog! We can use it!"

A sudden roar from above made Eve and the squad dive for cover. A major Elite, armed with what John told them was an energy sword, jumped down from the structure's roof and swung the sword at one of the soldiers. Thankfully, the soldier ducked and fired a shot from his battle rifle. The bullets bounced off the Elite's shield but it did not cower, it just walked closer to the soldier.

Eve ran up behind the Elite and swung her battle rifle at the back of It's head. The Elite roared in pain from the impact and grabbed the back of It's head. The energy sword it had flew out of It's hand, through the air and landed in a bush. The Elite then dropped to the floor. Then, two Jackals ran out from behind a section of the pipes. Eve spotted them and fired two bursts of ammo from her battle rifle at them. Both Jackals fell to the ground, dead.

However, with this distraction, the Elite grabbed hold of the soldier's battle rifle and swung it at him. The rifle butt him the soldier in the face and he fell to the ground, out cold. The Elite raised the rifle above the soldier. It was gong to smash it down on him! Eve went to fire on the Elite but a squad of Grunts appeared round the corner of the pipes and fired on her. It looked like the soldier, who the Elite had knocked out, was a goner.

Suddenly, a burst of ammo hit the Elite in the side. The Elite roared in pain and dropped to the ground once again, grabbing his side. Purple blood seeped through the gaps between his fingers. Another burst went through the Elite's chest. It dropped to the ground, dead.

"Leader dead!" One of the Grunts yelled. "Run away!"

The Grunts ran off towards the mountain, waving their arms in terror. Within a few seconds, they disappeared over a hill in another opening that was further upriver from the way Eve came in. The rest of the soldier's appeared from behind the structure.

"Where were you guys?" Eve asked them.

"We tried to contact evac again, but I don't think the signal could get through whatever this structure's made of," one of the soldier's replied.

"Is he gonna be alright?" another soldier asked as he ran over to the soldier lying on the ground.

"He'll be alright. He was lucky," Eve answered.

"_This is Echo 419! Anybody read me? I picked up a signal coming from this area, over,"_

A pelican flew over the mountain and circled the middle structure. Eve place a finger on the radio in her ear.

"We read, Echo 419," she said. "We have survivors and need extraction on the double,"

_"Roger that, Eve. I'm on my way."_

The Pelican hovered near a clearing between some trees and the side of the mountain. It was only just big enough for the pelican to fit. The soldiers, one carrying the knocked out soldier, ran forward and boarded the pelican.

"Thanks for your help, Eve," one of the soldiers said as he got onboard the pelican. "We would've been goners if you hadn't come."

"It's alright," Eve replied.

"_Oh, Eve. I almost forgot. I've got some good news for you. On my way over this area, I spotted two more crash sites. One near a rock fall. And another near the head of the river. It's hard to see from my altitude but it looks like there are more survivors,"_

"Thanks, Echo 419. I'll send you a call when I get to them," Eve said.

"_Affirmative, Eve. Foe Hammer,"_

Eve watched as the pelican rose into the air. When it was about high enough, the ship flew over the mountain and disappeared from sight.

The soldier, who as on the warthog's turret_,_ was trying to push the warthog back onto It's wheels again.

"Damn, this thing is heavy," he said as he wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"I'll help," Eve said as she came over.

"What makes you think you'll be able to turn it over?" the soldier asked her.

Eve smirked and pushed the warthog slightly. The warthog fell sideways onto It's wheels.

Eve smiled at the soldier and got back into the driver's seat. The soldier gaped at Eve first before coming to his senses and he climbed back onto the turret.

Eve started the warthog and drove through the second gap in the mountain. They found themselves back out near the river again. Eve drove down the side of the river, hoping to find another crashed drop ship. Suddenly, the warthog screeched to a halt. Eve had stooped the warthog because there was another great waterfall. It actually amazed Eve that one river went into two waterfalls.

"Hey, Eve," the soldier said. He pointed over to a gap in another small mountain on the other side of the river. "Let's go check in there,"

Eve drove the warthog across a shallow part of the river and into the path. As soon as they entered the path in the mountain, the two saw a shiny metal object at the end in a large field area filled with trees. When the warthog reached the end of the path, the two found themselves in another bowl-like valley, except the difference between this one and the first one was that it was smaller and the mountains were higher. There was the same structure in this valley like there was in the first one, but it was the same size as the one that was in the first crash site.

Eve surveyed the scene in front of her. As she looked to the left wall of the valley, her eyes rested on something. A second glace showed it was the second drop ship that had come down earlier. It was in the same condition as the one they found by the river. It was smoking, the sides were all crushed, the windows were smashed and the door to get inside was most likely obliterated in the crash.

Eve drove the warthog towards the drop ship. When she reached it, she got out and ran inside. There were three dead soldiers in their seats. One dead soldier was lying face down on the floor. Part of his body had been engulfed by the fire inside the ship. The stench of death rose in the air inside the ship. Eve put a hand over her nose and mouth to stop herself from throwing up. It was horrible.

Eve stepped outside the drop ship and moved her hand from her face. She sighed and looked around the valley. A hill was at the back of the valley just a few hundred yards behind the structure. The hill was covered with huge boulders that looked like they have been cut in half and stuck onto it. This was such a strange world.

Then, something among the rocks moved. Eve saw a figure run from behind one rock to another. Was it the survivors? Or was it Covenant? Suddenly, Eve's radio crackled to life.

"_This is Fire Team Bravo. We have spotted you near the drop ship. Identify yourself, over,"_

Eve placed a finger on the radio.

"Fire Team Bravo, this is Eve. I have a warthog here." she said.

"_Oh, Eve. Thank God It's you. We're in a tight spot. Patterson and Harris here are both badly wounded. We've called for evac some time ago, but we're worried of sending out another signal in case the Covenant pick it up,"_

"Roger that, Fire Team Bravo," Eve replied. "I'm on my way up,"

Eve ran back to the warthog and got into the driver's seat.

"Any survivors?" the soldier on the turret asked her.

"Yeah," Eve replied. "There up on the hill. Does this warthog have any medical equipment?"

"In the cabinet," the soldier reached down and pulled open a small cabinet in the space for Eve's legs. The cabinet was filled with serum injections, bandages and a defibrillator.

"Why, have they got wounded?" the soldier asked Eve.

"Yeah, two guys," Eve answered.

Eve drove warthog towards the hill. The front of the hill was too steep for the warthog so she had to drive to the left wall of the valley and then drive up the side of the hill. Once they were on the hill, Eve drove the warthog forward towards the squad. She saw the two wounded soldiers lying against one of the biggest boulders. One had a huge wound in his chest and several cuts and bruises across his face, neck and his hands. The other had blood seeping out of his side and part of his uniform was torn at the arms and chest, where Eve could see more wounds and cuts. They both looked really awful.

Eve and the soldier on the turret got off the warthog, took all the medical equipment and handed over to the squad's medic. The medic, a young woman with brown hair, thanked the two and began working on the wounded.

"Thanks so much, Eve," the squad sergeant said. "You're a life saver."

"Thanks," Eve replied. "This might sound odd me asking you this but did you see where the last drop ship crashed?"

"The last drop ship we saw was the one that crashed somewhere on this side of the river, in another bowl like valley like this one." the soldier replied. "Sorry, we don't know anything else."

"Argh!" one of the wounded soldiers grunted as the medic injected a serum into the wound on his chest.

"Is he gonna live?" the sergeant asked the medic.

"He's lucky," the medic replied. "If he had been left another few minutes or so, he would be dead."

The medic cut off a piece of the bandage and wrapped it round the chest wound. The white fabric, immediately, started to turn dark red. It was like an army that was conquering all that lay before it. Luckily, it stopped when about half of the front of the bandage was red.

Suddenly, Eve heard a whirring sound in her ears. She looked up at the surrounding mountains to see if she could spot the drop ship. Nothing on her first look, but when she looked in the direction of the first drop zone she saw the unforgettable shape of a Covenant drop ship hover over the mountain and head straight for the crashed drop ship.

"Get down!" the sergeant hissed.

Everyone in the squad took cover behind the boulders.

Eve went prone and peeked her head out from behind the boulder she was hiding behind. She watched the drop ship's doors opened, the Covenant troops, an Elite, four Grunts and three Jackals, jump onto the ground and then the ship taking off into the sky once again.

The squad of Covenant approached the crashed drop ship. It was like a hunter going over to check to see if his kill was dead. They kept their weapons raised because they knew that if any UNSC troops were hiding inside the drop ship, they would ambush them. As soon as the hunter was close enough to his kill, the animal would rise and attack. That was the feeling the Covenant squad had at the moment.

Then, one of the Jackals spotted something up in the hill. Eve saw that he was looking up at the hill. Oh crap! The warthog! She forgot to hide it! It was too late now. The Jackal signalled the rest of the squad and slowly, cautiously, walked up the slope towards the warthog.

"Get ready," the sergeant whispered. "We'll nail 'em when their close enough,"

The seconds went by. The level of tenseness increased rapidly as the Covenant squad approached closer. Eve was incredibly tense. She was more exposed so if one of the Jackals spotted her, their surprise attack would be given away.

"On my mark," the sergeant whispered. "One…two…THREE!"

At once, there was an uproar of gunfire. Eve fired burst after burst of ammo at the Covenant The rest of the squad did the same. The Covenant were taken by surprise so quickly that they barely had time to react before they were mown down by the barrage.

After a few seconds, the barrage halted. The Covenant were lying dead on the ground. Purple and light blue blood stained the grass. Bullets had been launched into chests, arms, sides, even heads. It was like a great massacre had taken place here.

"That's one down," the sergeant said as he stood up.

"There's most likely to be more where they came from," Eve said.

"_This is Echo 419 to Fire Team Bravo. Don't worry, your chariot to safety is on It's way!" _

"We read Echo 419. Thanks," Eve said.

Moments later, the pelican flew over the mountain and hovered to the ground near the crashed drop ship.

The sergeant and another soldier picked up the two wounded and carried them down the hill to the pelican. Eve and the rest of the squad followed. The medic got onboard first. She took the two wounded and set them down on the seats. The rest of the squad then boarded the pelican.

"_Good work Eve. The last drop ship crashed on this side of the river. There's a small path that leads from the river through a mountain to another valley like this one. But the path's too narrow for your warthog so you'll have to leave it."_

"Roger that Echo 419. Thanks for the warning." Eve replied.

"_Good luck. Foe Hammer out," _

Eve and the soldier who was on the warthog's turret ran back up the hill to the warthog. The soldier resumed his position on the turret whilst Eve got back into the driver's seat. Eve started the warthog engine once more. Engine humming, wheels growling. They were ready to go.

Eve drove the warthog down the hill towards the path. As she drove down the hill, the two watched as the pelican flew over the mountain and disappeared from sight.

As the warthog emerged from the path, the soldier on the turret was suddenly on alert.

"Eve! Drive!" he exclaimed.

"What is it?" Eve asked him.

"Just drive! Hurry!" he shouted his reply.

Eve drove the warthog along the side of the river at full speed. Behind her, the turret chattered with machine gun fire.

BOOM! A massive explosion erupted behind them.

CRASH! Something big crashed behind them. Eve screamed as whatever it was hit the warthog and almost tipped it over. Luckily, she slammed her foot down on the accelerator and drove out of the thing's path. Then, the warthog came to a screeching halt outside a path that was about the width of fireplace.

"What the hell was that?" Eve asked the soldier.

"Banshee," the soldier replied. "Their like the Covenant's air vehicles, but they can only be used in a planet's sky. Not in space."

Eve got out of the warthog's drivers seat. The soldier jumped down from the turret. The two quickly got out their weapons, loaded them and then began the trek along the path.

Eve was actually quite terrified of this last rescue. Not because the strain of the fighting or that the UNSC troops might be dead. It was because this was a rock fall. The Covenant could have a base or something here. If they did, both Eve and the soldiers would be dead.

After a few minutes of walking, Eve and the soldier came out into a wide valley. This time, however, there was no structure, but there were rocks. More like boulders. They were huge! Each one was about the size of a house. They were so big that they even held up a bit of land that rose high above the rock fall. "We've made it," Eve said. "Now we have to find the survivors,"A blue explosion erupted from the rock fall. At once, Eve knew the place was crawling with Covenant. Eve and the soldier ran forward as fast as they could to rescue their comrades. When they reached the rock fall, they found two dead Grunts and a dead Jackal.

"Watch out!" a voice shouted.

A soldier ran from behind one of the boulders. A minor Elite was chasing him. He had an energy word in one of his hands. Eve and her soldier fired on the Elite. The Elite took three wounds to the chest and one to the head before it crumpled to the ground.

"Thanks, Eve," the fleeing soldier said. "The rest of the squad's up there," he pointed to the bit of land that was being held up by the boulders.

"Follow me," he said.

The soldier turned and ran back through the gaps between the massive boulders. Eve and her soldier followed. The two went around the boulders and found themselves at the valley's back wall. They then followed the soldier up the bit of land and quickly saw the rest of the squad.

"Eve," a soldier with a sniper rifle said. He walked up to Eve holding his hand out in front of him. "I'm glad you're here. Name's Robson,"

"Sir," Eve said as they shook hands.

"Have you called for evac?" Eve asked him as they let go of each other's hands.

Robson nodded.

"We called for evac about five minutes ago." Robson replied. "But, unfortunately, they weren't the only ones who picked up the signal, as you just saw."

"Not the first," Eve said.

"Sir, enemy drop ship's spotted," a nearby young looking soldier said.

He pointed out at the valley's front walls. Five Covenant drop ships flew over the mountain and headed for the clearing between the valley's front walls and the boulders.

"Holy crap," Robson said as he observed the drop ships through the scope of his sniper rifle. "They'll be full of Covenant troops,"

"Can't get any worse," the young soldier said.

Unfortunately, it did. A sixth drop ship landed near the valley's entrance. It was different from the others because there was a huge platform hovering between the drop ship's two L's. On that platform were Hunters. Four of them! This did not look good.

"It can't get any worse, you just had to open your mouth," Robson growled at the young soldier.

The other five drop ships' doors opened. Covenant troops poured out of them. By the time they were all out, there were four Hunters, nine Jackals, three Elites, one a major, and eight Grunts. All were armed with plasma rifles, plasma pistols, plasma grenades and two of the Grunts even had a strange weapon that looked the head of a creature almost cut in half. On the top of it were small holes. Each one had purple needles sticking out of them. This weapon was called a Type 33 Guided Munitions Launcher. Or what the UNSC called, a Needler.

"Great!" Robson grunted. "We're so gonna die,"

"No we're not," Eve said. "Robson, get your sniper rifle ready. Anyone else with a battle rifle over here as well. The rest of you, keep an eye on the way up here."

The squad did exactly as Eve commanded. When they were done, there were six soldiers at the edge of the boulder held up land and four people watching the way to get up onto the land.

The Covenant walked towards the boulders, right into the trap the UNSC soldiers had set for them. Eve's grip on the trigger tightened, like everyone else's. The Covenant were getting closer with each passing second.

"NOW!" Robson yelled.

A barrage of gunfire, screaming, shouting, explosions. All this exploded into the air in just a mere second. The ambush had worked, but the number of Covenant the squad expected to kill wasn't as good.

Eve fired her battle rifle at a fleeing Grunt. She missed twice, but got him on the third. Robson managed to kill one of the Jackals with a shot to the head. The young soldier, who spotted the drop ships, nailed three targets, a Jackal and two Grunts, right in the head.

Then, one of the two minor Elites set off a plasma grenade and threw it up at Eve. Eve saw it coming and used her battle rifle to smack it away. The grenade flew through the air and landed on the back of an unsuspecting Grunt.

"AHHH! IT'S GOT ME! HEELLP!" the Grunt screamed.

The Grunt began running in and out of members of his squad, all who dived for cover or ran out of the way when they saw the grenade on the Grunt's back.

BOOM! The grenade exploded. The Grunt had been near the Elite who threw the grenade, so both were killed.

"Nice one, Eve," the young soldier said.

"Thanks," Eve replied.

"Baker's down!" someone behind them shouted.

Eve, and the rest of the squad at the front of the held up land, spun round to reveal that the major Elite, the other minor Elite and some of the Jackals and Grunts had already reached the rear and were firing on them.

"Oh crap!" Robson shouted as he, Eve and the rest of their squad took cover behind the boulders with the other UNSC soldiers.

"They've got us trapped," the young soldier said. "We're dead meat!"

"Not yet," Eve said. "Robson, give me your sniper,"

Robson did so.

Eve aimed the sniper at the major Elite. She fired a shot. The bullet went right through the Elite's shield, but didn't kill him. Robson grabbed Eve's battle rifle and fired a burst at the major Elite, finishing him off.

Eve used the sniper rifle against two Jackals after using it against the major Elite, killing them both. All of a sudden, she was overwhelmed with shock and fear.

The four titanic figures of the Hunters appeared behind the remains of the Covenant squad. When they were about fifty feet away from their enemies, they charged up their plasma cannons. At once, Eve knew what was coming.

"RUN!" she screamed.

A mere second later, a tremendous explosion filled the air. The four Hunters had fired their plasma projectiles at the same time, causing the massive explosion on impact. The explosion wasn't also so big, but very powerful. It had destroyed the boulders the soldiers were hiding behind and had completely obliterated the young soldier and a soldier armed with a MA5B assault rifle.

Eve had been thrown to the ground when the Hunters fired. As she came to her senses, she saw them march towards her. It wasn't hard to tell that knew who she was. Eve closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She wanted the end to come quickly. Quickly and painlessly.

It never did. All of a sudden...

BOOM! Eve opened her eyes.

Something big exploded in the centre of the Covenant squad. All four Hunters, the last Elite and the remaining Grunts and Jackals were all killed by the explosion.

_What the hell was that? _Eve thought as she looked at the dead Covenant.

"_This is Echo 419. Looks like I got here just in time!" _Eve smiled as she got up.

"Thanks for the help, For Hammer," she said.

"_My pleasure, Eve. Lets get you guys home,"_

Echo 419's pelican landed in the clearing between the boulders and the valley's front wall. Eve joined the rush with the rest of the squad to the pelican. Eve got onboard and sat down on one of the seats.

"_Welcome aboard, Eve," _

"Thanks, Foe Hammer," Eve replied.

Moments later, the pelican flew into the air. Eve watched as the landscape she had been over today was all revealed to her from one view.

Just then, the cog pit door opened.

"Uh, Eve," came Foe Hammer's voice. "I think you should come up here,"

Eve got up and walked into the cog pit.

"What is it?" she asked Foe Hammer.

"I've picked up a transmission from another pelican called Victor 933," Foe Hammer replied. "They need to talk to you,"

Foe Hammer pressed a button on the controls in front of her. Static was heard after that for a few seconds. Then, a voice crackled to life.

"_This is Victor 933. I've intercepted your transmission. Please respond, over," _

"This is Eve," Eve said. "I'm on pelican Echo 419. Foe Hammer told me you have a message for me."

"_That's right, Eve. We've just escaped from the Axiom's crash site. It isn't good news I've got here. The Covenant have secured the entire crash site and have taken captain McCrea and several other marines prisoner. We've activated a global search engine and McCrea's heading for some Covenant cruiser called the Truth and Reconciliation."_

Eve looked at Foe Hammer wide-eyed. The captain was onboard a Covenant cruiser. That was very bad. If a human went onboard a Covenant cruiser, he/she had no chance of ever coming off it.

No! Eve wasn't get to let McCrea and the other captured soldiers suffer the same fate as those who had died on those ships before them. Her first mission on this strange world was done, but there were many more to come.

"Have you set up a base of operations?" Eve asked.

"_Yeah, Alpha Base. It's in a small forest-mountain region a few miles from your position,"_

"Good," Eve said. "We'll meet up and prepare a rescue mission. We're not leaving captain McCrea behind."

_"Roger that. We'll see you later. Victor 933 out," _

"Eve, are you sure that is a good idea?" Foe Hammer asked her.

"Not really," Eve replied. "But I can't let captain McCrea get tortured or killed by the Covenant."

"I hope this idea of yours works," For Hammer said to her. "Otherwise, It'll end in a massacre for you and anyone going with you and McCrea and the prisoners will be dead."


	16. Rescue on the Truth and Reconciliation

Date: April 12th, 2552

Later that day

It was now night time over the ring. The sky was filled with the beautiful stars of space. To any newcomers of this strange world, it would be the most beautiful thing they've seen for a long time. To the ring world, it was just another ordinary night.

If only it was a peaceful night for the UNSC who were on the ring, but it was not to be. Shortly after Eve arrived at Alpha base, she went with Sergeant John and several other top chiefs to a conference room to discuss a rescue mission. John and two of the chiefs agreed with Eve that a rescue mission should be launched, but the other three weren't so sure. They did agree with Foe Hammer that if the operation failed, Eve and the squad going with her would be dead, along with captain McCrea and the prisoners.

As soon as the talk was over, sergeant John ordered a squad of marine ODST's (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) to be put together and put on a pelican with him and Eve to take part in the rescue mission.

A few hours later, pelican Echo 419 was on It's way to where the _Truth and Reconciliation_ had landed. Somehow, it had been disabled during the battle above the ring and had landed in this area for repairs.

Echo 419's pelican had found a landing zone. It was a small clearing between a cliff and several mountains that had passes going through them. The terrain of this area was no longer trees or grass like Eve had faced earlier in the day. Now it was more of a desert landscape.

"_The enemy has captured captain McCrea and are holding him and several other prisoners onboard one of their cruisers." _Eve explained to the squad of ODST's onboard the pelican._ "It's called the Truth and Reconciliation. The ship is currently holding position approximately three hundred metres above the other end of this plateau,"_

Echo 419's pelican slowed to a hover. It slowly descended until it was fifteen feet above the ground.

"So how do we get inside this ship if It's in the air?" one of the ODST soldiers asked. "The Corps issued me a rifle, not wings."

"There's a gravity lift that ferries troops and supplies between the ship and the surface," John replied. "That's our ticket in,"

Eve and the squad of ODST's jumped off the pelican onto the ground.

"C'mon, marines. Move out!" John ordered.

"_Good luck with the rescue, guys. Foe Hammer out," _

The pelican rose slowly into the air. When it was about twenty feet in the air, it flew off into the darkness of the sky, disappearing very quickly from the squad's view. Now, it was just them.

Eve, who was carrying a 99C-S2 sniper rifle and a M6C Magnum, looked around the clearing to try and find a way towards the ship. She found one in the clearing's corner. It had a stretch of high ground on It's right, up against a small rocky hill, and a narrow path that led into a small crater.

Eve led the squad forward towards the opening. She stopped them when they were about ten feet from the opening and took a few steps forward. She had to make sure the way was clear of Covenant or they walk right into an ambush.

Eve reached the edge of the opening. She peeked her round the corner.

Twenty feet in front of her, a shape was moving about in the darkness between the high ground and several boulders in the crater. The shape then turned and walked towards Eve. When it came into the moonlight, Eve saw that it was a Jackal carrying an activated shield.

Then, a Grunt lumbered into view from behind a dead tree. It lumbered over to the side of the high ground. Then it curled up into a ball and lay still. "There's Covenant in the crater," Eve whispered to the squad.

"We'll have to try and find a way to surprise 'em," John said.

Eve looked around to find a solution to the problem. She found it. It was the high ground that stretched from the opening to the crater's back wall. It had several large rocks along It's side, facing the inside of the crater. It was perfect!

"I've got an idea." Eve whispered to John. "I'm going to go up the stretch of high ground and try and snipe some of them. Don't open fire until you hear the enemy return fire on me,"

"You got it," John replied. "Alright marines, load your weapons and get ready."

Eve crept across the crater entrance onto the high ground. Once there, she crouched and, slowly and silently, moved down the high ground. As she got closer, more of the inside of the crater was revealed, along with more Covenant. When Eve had crept about half-way down the high ground, she had spotted two minor Elites, six minor Grunts, one major Grunt and four minor Jackals.

Eve stopped about half-way down the high ground between two large sand coloured boulders. She went prone and raised her sniper rifle slightly. She had to choose her target carefully. Not only because it would give away her position, but also because there were two massive turrets nearby. The were Covenant because they had a sphere shaped main section of the turret, which had a seat built into it, three legs that held up the sphere and the actual turret's spires were replica's of the ones on a Covenant drop ship, but smaller. Eve knew if she could scare the Covenant enough by killing an important member of the squad, the ones who would pilot the turrets may get so freaked out that they might just leave them and flee to save themselves.

Eve's sniper moved from one target to another. First, it wan an Elite, then it the major Grunt, then it moved onto one of the patrolling Jackals. Finally, Eve made up her mind and set the gun on the major Grunt's head. With her target lying against a rock, there was no way she could miss. Eve breathed in and pulled the trigger.

The major Grunt stretched his arms slightly as he lay against the rock. Suddenly, he was thrown to the ground sideways as the bullet from Eve's sniper hit him the head, instantly killing him.

Eve was surprised that none of the nearby Covenant noticed their comrade get killed. Either this sniper must have a silencer on it or they just assumed he had fallen asleep. Eve loaded another bullet into the sniper and fired again, killing a Jackal patrolling a few feet away in front of her.

It was then Eve's cover was blown. As she loaded another bullet into her rifle, a nearby minor Grunt spotted the dead Jackal and the blood over the ground.

"Jackal dead!" the Grunt screamed. "Ambush! Run away!"

Another nearby Jackal then Eve's head and fired on her. Eve saw the blasts coming and jumped behind one of the boulders. A minor Grunt then lit up a plasma grenade and threw it at the boulder Eve was hiding behind. The grenade bounced off the top of the boulder and landed a few inches from Eve.

BOOM! The grenade exploded.

John and his squad heard all this erupting in the crater.

"Let's go, marines," he ordered.

John led the squad of ODST's into the crater, where they fired on the Covenant. Two Grunts were hit and flipped backwards onto the ground, dead. The rest of the Covenant realised retaliated with their own gunfire.

Behind the boulder, Eve lay still. The grenade had exploded and thrown her several feet from where she was. No one would have been able to survive an explosion like that.

Suddenly, Eve groaned. She was alive! As she sat up, her suit's holographic shield meter appeared again. It was empty and was flashing a very dark red colour. Then, the suit's charge kicked in and filled the meter back up again. 

_Thank God for the suit _Eve thought as she stood up.

She placed her sniper rifle in a weapon's vest on her back and took out her magnum. She jumped off the high ground and joined John and the squad of ODST's in their battle against the Covenant.

Eve fired two shots from her magnum at one of the minor Elites. The Elite didn't make a dive for cover as the bullets bounced off his shield. Big mistake. John pulled out a fragmentation grenade, pulled off the pin and threw it at the Elite. The Elite was still firing at his enemies. He didn't see the grenade flying towards him.

BOOM! The fragmentation grenade exploded. The Elite screamed as he was thrown several feet from where he was standing. He hit the ground and lay still.

"Watch out!" one of the soldiers shouted.

Eve and John dived behind cover as three purple blasts hit where they were just standing. The rest of the ODST squad did the same, narrowly missing another set of blasts.

Eve peeked her head out from behind the boulder her and John were behind and saw one of the minor Grunts on one of the turrets. From a distance, it looked like some sort of monster with the spires as the huge teeth.

"Now what!" John grunted. "You got any way of getting out of this?" he asked Eve.

"Give a grenade," Eve said to John.

"I'm out," John replied.

"Damn," Eve said quietly. "Where am I gonna get one?"

Her answer came quickly when one of the ODST's rose up from behind his hiding place, a small boulder, and fired a burst from his M90 shotgun at the other Elite. The Elite was hit in the face and fell to the ground, dead. A plasma grenade flew out of the Elite's hand and landed next to Eve.

"That was quick," Eve said.

Eve pressed her thumb down on the orange thunderbolt. She threw the grenade at the turret. It stuck to the turret's side like sticky tape.

BANG! The turret was, literally, thrown up into the air. The Grunt let out a scream as he soared through the air and hit the crater's wall. The turret fell back to the ground, crushing and killing a Jackal. The rest of the Covenant turned and ran in fear. Eve watched them as they ran behind a boulder which was in front of another opening in the crater's wall "We got 'em on the run," John said to his troops.

"There must be another path out of this crater," Eve said, pointing over to the opening. "Let's go,"

Eve ran out from behind the boulder towards the second opening; the squad followed. When Eve reached it, she was greeted with a black sky with stars shining in all their glory. It was beautiful.

Eve snapped out her trance when she took a step forwards and, suddenly, jerked her foot back. Eve was on the edge of another cliff. If she had taken that extra step, she would have fallen to her death.

"What is it, Eve?" John asked as he stopped next to her.

"Sorry, I was day dreaming," Eve replied.

"Hey, sarge," one of the soldiers said. John looked at him. "Should we carry on along this path?" the soldier indicated to a small, narrow path that was between the cliff's edge and the wall of the crater. The space was only about six feet wide.

"We have to," John said to the soldier. "McCrea's life is depending on us,"

Eve walked past the squad and crept across the path. She stopped when she was at the top of the path and looked round the edge of the crater's outside wall.

There was a wide open space in front of her. There was a small mountain about two hundred feet away. In front of it were several small hills and boulders and dead trees. The edge of the cliff ran along the clearing and went into another path that went around the side of the mountain.

On top of a small hill several metres in font of her, Eve saw the top of a Covenant turret. A minor Grunt was on this turret. Suddenly, the turret swerved towards Eve and fired. Eve threw herself against the crater's wall, just barely missing the purple blasts that shot past her and disappeared into the dark open space thousands of feet below her.

"I guess the Covenant are crawling all over that place," John said as the rest of the squad reached Eve.

"Yep," Eve replied. "We've hit another defence line,"

"How we gonna get past?" one of the ODST's asked.

He was right. How were hey going to get past? If they tried charging out, they would be cut to pieces. It was hard moment.

After a few seconds, Eve looked out at the open area again. She spotted a few rocks near the edge of one of the hills.

"I've got an idea," she said to the squad. "There's a few rocks near one of the hills. You guys need to give me covering fire and whilst the turret's pinned down, I can run around it and destroy it."

"Good plan, Eve," John said.

He took a look at the turret, which fired on him. Luckily, John got out of the way of the blasts.

"Give the word when your ready," he said to Eve, who replied with a nod.

Eve quickly checked her pistol's clip was full. It was.

"Right, on my mark," Eve said. "One…two…THREE!"

An eruption of blasts echoed in the night sky. Eve ran full speed from behind the crater wall to one of the rocks, dodging the turret's blasts and small arms fire from other Covenant troops lying in wait near the turret.

Eve reached the rocks and threw herself to the ground. Several blasts exploded on the ground around her. Eve panicked, thinking she was exposed. She got up to return fire, but was suddenly attacked.

A major Elite grabbed her neck and threw her over to the bottom of the small hill with the turret. Eve groaned as she got up, but faced the pain again when the Elite pushed her up against the hard rock of the hill. It was like being hit with a sledgehammer in the chest. It hurt like hell. The Elite then pulled out an energy sword. Eve saw this, but was too hurt to react. It looked like the end for her.

Suddenly, a burst of ammo caused the Elite to throw the sword up into the air. The ODST soldier with the M90 shotgun had fired at the Elite. The Elite fell onto It's knees. It was then killed by another burst of ammo from the ODST soldier with the shotgun.

The pain slowly ebbed away as Eve moved away from the side of the hill. Her senses were too blurred to see what was going on. She could hear gunfire and blast fire coming from Covenant small arms fire and the turret. John and the ODST squad were firing at several Covenant Jackals taking cover behind their shields next to the turret.

Eve's senses finally came back to her and she saw the fighting going on.

"Go around 'em, Eve!" John shouted to her. "We'll cover you!"

Eve nodded and ran along the side of the hill towards the cliff edge. The hill turned into the rest of the open area. She followed the hill round into the open area. Then, she ran up the hill where the turret was and took cover behind a small boulder that looked like it had been stuck into the ground.

Eve was now only a few metres behind the Covenant turret and Jackals. She took out her Magnum, slowly rose up from behind the boulder and aimed at the Grunt manning the turret. Eve tightened her finger on the trigger, then she pulled it.

The sound of a gunshot exploded into the air. The Grunt manning the turret was hit in the triangle armour. The bullet ripped through the armour like paper and then embedded itself in the back of the Grunt's head. The Grunt fell off the turret and onto the ground, dead.

Immediately, the Jackals turned round and fired at Eve, who ducked behind the boulder for cover. They began to step towards Eve with their shields covering them, firing their guns as they did. She had killed the Grunt on the turret to save her comrades, but now the squad had to kill the Jackals in order to save Eve.

Just when it looked like Eve would be doomed, John and the squad came up from the hill's side and fired at the Jackals. The Jackals were taken completely by surprise and were slaughtered.

"Thanks, guys," Eve said as the squad ran up to her.

"It's okay, Eve," John replied. "We're one step closer to getting to the ship,"

"Contacts along the path!" one of the soldiers shouted, pointing over to the path that led around the side of the mountain.

Eve and the rest of the squad looked over to where he was pointing. Running along the path, about sixty feet away, were four minor Grunts. Two were armed with plasma pistols, the other two had needlers.

Eve whipped out her sniper rifle and fired a shot at the Grunts. One of the Grunts with a needler was hit in the leg and stumbled to the ground. Unfortunately, his fall caused him to tumble over the side of the cliff. The Grunt screamed but It's sound was soon drowned out as it disappeared into the darkness below them.

"Sniper!" one of the Grunts squeaked. "Run away!"

The rest of the Grunts turned and ran back the way they came, waving their arms in the air and screaming in fear. Within a few seconds, they ran round the side of the mountain and disappeared from sight.

"C'mon," Eve said. "We have to get to wherever they're going before they build up their defences again."

Eve ran off the hill and over to the next cliff path; the squad followed. Eve held up her gun and walked slowly along the path. Step by step, she and the squad were getting closer to any Covenant forces.

Finally, Eve reached the side of the mountain. She peeked her head out from behind the mountain's side to check the area for Covenant.

About two hundred feet ahead of her, Eve saw another mountain that at the end of a clear cliff edge, so there must be another open area ahead. Eve couldn't see it because the side of the mountain she was hiding behind was about thirty feet wide and was covering most of her view.

Eve, raising her gun, slowly stepped out from behind the side of he mountain and walked up the path towards the open area. The rest of the squad, silently, followed her. Eve hoped that she could see any defences the Covenant, might, have prepared in the open area or they would walk right into an ambush.

Fortune seemed to smile on Eve when she was near the end of the path. The end of the mountain's side along the path had a curve that allowed Eve a good view of the open area when she reached it.

The open area was about twice as large as the last one. There was a small hill about ten metres away in front of Eve. A Covenant turret was placed on top of it. The middle of the open area was a small drop that led underneath a rock archway that led from the hill Eve was in front of to another hill at the back of the open area. A third hill was up against the right wall of the open area about twenty feet behind the hill at the front of the open area.

Covenant were scattered all over this place. An Elite was patrolling along the hill in front of Eve. He looked around the area before walking towards the back of the open area and disappearing behind the top of the hill.

Eve held up a hand to stop the squad. There had to be a way around the turret. She looked along the cliff and saw a small path that ran around the side of the hill.

"There's Covenant forces up ahead." Eve said to the squad. "The path up on the left should let us sneak up around them,"

"We'll hang back while you get into position, Eve," John replied.

Eve nodded and crept out from behind the mountain towards the turret. There were no Grunts manning the turret, which was good, but in order for her plan to work the Elite had to stay where he was long enough for Eve to go around the side of the hill.

Eve crept about halfway up the hill's side, she could see the Elite facing the back of the open area, completely oblivious to the intruders behind him. This was great. With the Elite not looking, Eve could creep up behind him and kill him with a blow to the head with the butt of her sniper rifle.

However, she had to scratch that idea when a Jackal appeared from around the side of the hill. Eve ducked low, hoping to avoid his gaze, but the Jackal's advanced hearing heard her shuffle as he ducked down. He immediately spotted her leg and let out an eagle-like screech.

The Elite spun round and saw Eve lying on the ground a few metres away. He growled and fired a barrage of blasts at her. Eve yelped and ran. The commotion had caused several Grunts and Jackals, on the other hills, to look over to the front of the open area and they spotted Eve, which made them fire on her as well.

Eve had to find somewhere to hide! But the only place that could offer some protection was the turret. Eve didn't think twice about hiding using the turret as cover, she literally dived behind it. Blasts shook the turret as they collided with it. Eve was worried that it might fall on top of her. That was something she most certainly did not want to happen.

Eve pulled out her sniper rifle, loaded another bullet into it and took aim at the hill against the open area's wall. A Grunt was firing at Eve's position but wasn't behind cover. He was perfectly exposed. Eve fired a shot at the Grunt. Her target let out a yell as it flipped backwards onto the ground, dead.

Eve loaded another shot into her sniper rifle, but aimed at the Elite this time. She fired a shot, but the Elite jumped out of the way. The shot, however, continued on and hit another Jackal that was running past the Elite to flank Eve. The Jackal fell to the ground, dead.

"John," Eve said, placing a finger on the radio in her ear. "I've got them distracted."

"Roger that," John replied. "Let's go marines. Move out!"

John led the squad of ODST's out from behind the mountain wall and open fired on the Covenant. The Jackal that spotted Eve was killed by hits to the chest and head. This distracted the Elite from firing on Eve, who then fired a shot from her sniper rifle at the Elite, killing it with a hit to the head.

"Front hill secure," John said. "Move up across the archway,"

Eve joined the squad as they took cover behind a set of small boulders near their side of the archway. They open fired on the Grunts and Jackals on the other side of the archway. Another Grunt was hit and fell forward off the hill and onto the ground, dead. Eve then ran across the archway, hoping to flank the Covenant troops.

Suddenly, she stopped half-way across the archway. A whirring sound filled her ears. She realised what it was.

"Covenant drop ship inbound," she shouted to the squad as she ran back over to them.

"Oh, great!" John growled. "We're pinned down by Covenant troops and now there's a drop ship on It's way!"

A large shape flew over the side of the mountain. Eve looked up and gasped. The Covenant drop ship had arrived. From the ground, it looked like some kind of flying beast looking down for It's prey. The drop ship flew over to a corner of the open area, near the cliff edge, and slowly descended towards the ground.

"I'll deal with these guys, you keep these Covenant distracted," Eve said to John, who replied with a nod.

Eve ran from behind the boulders and headed over to the Covenant drop ship. She jumped down from the hill but ended up landing in a small bush. Eve cursed as she stood up from the bush and continued running towards the drop ship. She took cover behind a boulder and watched as the drop ship stopped descending and hovered about twenty feet above the ground.

Eve was about to load another bullet into her sniper rifle when she noticed something about hand. It was starting to fade away. It had faded away so much she could see right through it! Then she looked down at her legs and saw that they had disappeared. Then the rest of her body began disappearing. What the hell was going on?

Eve hadn't disappeared into thin air or been beamed to another part of the ring. She had turned invisible. At first it was a complete mystery. Then, she remembered something from the training on Reach. Sometimes on the battlefield, the Covenant would have power ups lying around. One of the known power ups was an invisibility cloak, which was mostly used for stealth missions but they would never last long.

This was great! With Eve invisible, she could surprise the Covenant in the drop ship!

The drop ship doors opened. Five Grunts, a Jackal and an Elite jumped out of the craft onto the ground. The drop ship then ascended up into the air and then flew off, heading up towards the _Truth and Reconciliation_.

"Let's get bad guys," one of the Grunts squeaked.

"ARGH!" another of the Grunts screamed. The other turned in his direction. "Can't see who something hit my head."

"Hey, something hit me!" another Grunt squeaked.

The Jackal and the Elite looked at each other and shrugged.

Suddenly, a stone flew out of nowhere and hit the Elite right in the side of the head. The Elite growled and grabbed his head's side in pain.

Finally, one of the Grunts couldn't take it any more.

"MONSTER!" he screamed.

The Grunt took out a plasma grenade, lit it and, blinded by panic, threw it towards the Elite. The Elite, who was rubbing the side of his head from where the stone hit, didn't see the grenade coming and it got stuck on his chest's armour. The Elite roared in panic and tried to pull it off.

BOOM! The grenade exploded. The explosion killed the Elite, the Jackal and two Grunts. The remaining three Grunts screamed and ran around waving their arms in the air in panic. Unfortunately, one of the Grunts accidentally tripped over his feet and ploughed into the other two Grunts who were near the cliff's edge. The three aliens screamed as they fell over the side of the cliff, but their screams soon faded away as they disappeared into the darkness thousands of feet below.

_I better use invisibility cloaks more often _Eve thought.

John and the squad of ODST's were not having as much luck as Eve was. They had only killed one Grunt, but were mostly pinned down the Covenant's superior firepower.

Suddenly, the Covenant troops on the other side of the archway fell to the ground, dead. It looked like they just suddenly died. John looked out from behind his boulder.

"What the hell?" he said, unable to explain what just happened.

"Don't worry, I've cleared the way," John heard someone shout.

Then, he saw a figure forming on the other side of the archway. After a few seconds passed, he saw that the figure had shoulder length white hair and was wearing white bodysuit. It was Eve.

John and the squad ran across the archway to Eve.

"How did you do that?" John asked as he reached her.

"Let's just say the Covenant left an invisibility cloak lying around," Eve replied.

"Sarge," one of the soldiers said. "We better keep moving. The Covenant will probably have heard this battle."

"Alright, move out," John ordered. "Eve, lead the way."

Eve nodded and jumped down the five foot drop from the hill to the ground. John and the rest of the squad followed. Eve found small path leading through the mountain at the back of the open area. Eve led the squad down the path. Up ahead was another open area, but this one was on the side of a cliff. Eve could see a small hill attached to the open area's right wall. Just a few metres in front of that hill was some kind of big platform with a wide purple cylindrical light shining onto it. The light was coming from a large open circle on the bottom of the _Truth and Reconciliation_.

Like the other three, this open area was crawling with Covenant. Eve could see another Covenant turret on the small hill and then, when she walked closer to the open area, she saw another turret next to the cliff edge. However, there was something strange about this place. Where were the Covenant?

"Wonder where the Covenant are?" Eve asked herself.

"Maybe the Covenant freaked out and left," one of the ODST soldiers suggested.

"C'mon, the Covenant wouldn't do something like that," John said to the soldier.

"Well, we might as well get onboard," another ODST soldier said.

The soldier walked forward towards the platform on the ground.

"I don't think you should go near the platform," Eve said.

"Aw c'mon," the soldier said, turning to look at the squad. "What, the Covenant are just gonna float down right behind me,"

The soldier chuckled slightly and turned to look at the purple light coming down from the ship. His eyes went wide.

Unfortunately, whilst he was talking to the squad, a Covenant squad, made up of an Elite, three Grunts and two Jackals, had floated down from the ship and were glaring at the soldier. Then, the Elite grabbed the soldier, head butted him and threw him to the ground outside the pink light.

"Open fire!" John ordered.

At once, the squad, including the squad member that had been thrown to the ground, fired a barrage of bullets at the Covenant. The Covenant squad retaliated with their own gunfire. The ODST's took cover behind a few nearby boulders. Eve joined John behind one of the boulders.

"If they hold us up here, we're never gonna get inside." he said to Eve.

Eve frantically looked around the open area to find a way to flank the Covenant squad. She found one.

The turret on the hill was closer to the platform than the turret next to the cliff edge. It was also partly covered behind a boulder. It was in the perfect place to use against the Covenant.

"Don't worry, John," Eve said. "I've found something to help us,"

Before John could ask Eve what it was, Eve got up and ran out from behind the boulder. Blasts whizzed past her as she headed towards the turret. One green blast almost hit her in the head, but Eve ducked and the blast hit a nearby boulder.

_That was close _Eve thought as she reached the turret.

Eve didn't hesitate to get into the turret, she jumped into the seat. At once, she felt the turret rise, and that's exactly what had happened. The sphere broke in half and the top half, which had the turret seat, hovered about a foot from the bottom half of the turret.

Eve was faced with a set of controls. All were a different colour, but most were a dark blue/purple colour. Eve didn't know which one to press. She was scared that she might accidentally fire a blast at her own squad or the turret would break down.

Finally, Eve closed her eyes and pressed a small dark blue button near her knee.

At once, the turret jolted backwards, almost throwing Eve out of the seat. The turret had fired a set of blasts at the Covenant, hitting and killing a Grunt. Eve opened her eyes to see what had happened. When she saw the dead Grunt, she smiled and got ready to fire again.

Eve fired an almighty barrage at the Covenant. Her targets saw what was coming, but failed to jump out of the way quick enough. All were killed within a few seconds.

"Nice work, Eve!" John shouted over to her. "Alright, let's move out,"

"John, wait!" Eve shouted back. "I see more Covenant coming down,"

John looked up. Eve was right. Through the dark sky in the background and the dark purple cylindrical light, John could just make out several figures floating down towards the platform at fast speed. When they were about sixty feet above the platform, their speed slowed down as quickly as someone flicking a switch. The squad of three Grunts, two Elites and a Jackal landed on the platform and, quicker than the last squad, ran behind several pillars, each about three feet tall, scattered around the platform's edges.

"Fire on 'em!" John ordered as he dived behind cover, just missing several blasts from one of the Elites' plasma rifles.

Eve fired another barrage of blasts at the Covenant squad on the platform. She managed to kill the Jackal by breaking through his shield. A Grunt followed the same fate as the Jackal quickly afterwards.

Suddenly, one of the Elites pulled out a plasma grenade, lit it and threw it at Eve's turret. Eve yelped and, literally, dived out of the turret's seat onto the ground. Just in time as well.

BOOM! The grenade exploded, throwing the turret into the air like a toy. The turret then crashed into the ground, on It's side, next to the cliff edge before the weight forced it over the cliff edge and out of sight.

_Another close call _Eve thought as she got up.

Eve pulled out her sniper rifle and fired a bullet at the Covenant. The bullet ripped through one of the Elites' shields, destroying it. The Elite was also thrown backwards from his hiding place into the line of fire, completely exposed. John saw the Elite and fired a burst of ammo from his battle rifle at the Elite. The bullets ripped through the Elite's armour on It's chest and embedded themselves inside It's body, killing the Elite.

"One down," Eve whispered under her breath as she loaded another bullet into her sniper rifle.

Eve fired another shot at the Covenant. The bullet killed another Grunt before breaking through the shield of the other Elite and going into It's side. The Elite roared in pain and grabbed It's side. Purple blood began pouring out of the wound. Then the Elite, like his brother, staggered out from behind his cover, completely exposing itself. The squad then fired on the Elite, killing it.

"NOOO!" the remaining Grunt, who was also the last member of his squad still alive, screamed. "Brothers dead! Help!"

The Grunt ran out from behind the pillar it was using as cover. Eve fired a blast from the turret at the Grunt, instantly killing it with a hit in the back.

"Area's secure," John said. "Let's move up onto the platform.

Eve got off the turret's seat and ran down the hill's slope as the squad ran onto the platform. Eve ran onto the platform. She put her sniper rifle back in the vest on her back and picked up an Elite's plasma rifle. It felt heavy in her hand at first, but after a few seconds her strength grew used to holding this new weapon and it was no longer very heavy.

"Whoa!" one of the ODST's exclaimed.

Eve looked over to her left to see one of the ODST soldiers floating several feet above the platform's surface. He was slowly rising higher and higher into the air. Suddenly, all the other members of the squad began to hover into the air. They then shot upwards towards the ship and disappeared from sight.

Eve, suddenly, felt herself being lifted from the ground as it some invisible hands were picking her up and pulling her into the ship. Within a few seconds, Eve was shooting up towards the Covenant cruiser.

_We're coming, captain. _Eve tensely thought as she got closer to the ship. _Just hang in there a little longer. _


	17. Rescuing the captain

The _Truth and Reconciliation's_ lower bay doors opened. The squad hovered through the hole and floated in the air for several seconds as the bay door closed itself. Then, like someone flicking a switch, the hovering stopped and the squad landed on the bay door.

"We're in," Eve said.

Eve surveyed the room they were in. There were many doors scattered around the room. Two large blast ones at both ends of the room and two small ones of the room's side walls. Also, scattered around the room, were several large shapes, which the squad couldn't see very well since there was only a little light in this room.

"This is strange," John said. "No Covenant defences are in here,"

"What! No Covenant?" one of the ODST soldiers standing near John and was armed with a battle rifle, exclaimed. "Maybe nobody's home,"

Eve checked all the doors in the room. All were sitting there, lifeless. Maybe the soldier was right, or maybe the Covenant were sending a squad to kill the captain. That thought really scared Eve. The Covenant could be killing the captain right now and this squad, this rescue operation. It's all been for nothing.

Suddenly, a small beep was heard by Eve's hearing. One of the small doors along the wall opened up. The door must have been split into two sections. A back section for one hallway and a front section for another hallway. The back section moved back into the wall, followed by the front section. There was a hallway behind the door with a dark pink/purple like floor. The walls were purple and there were green lights shining all the way down the corridor.

However, this is not what shocked Eve when she turned to look at the door. An energy sword floated into view, but it was slightly moving up and down as if someone was carrying it. Then, it hit Eve.

"Watch out!" she shouted to her comrades.

Just in time. The Covenant holding the energy sword had targeted a soldier standing on the room's floor. The soldier, who was armed with the M90 shotgun, saw the weapon coming towards him and fired a burst at it. The energy sword fell to the floor. Suddenly, blue sparks flew out of nowhere. Then, an Elite began to form just a few feet in front of the soldier. This Elite had silver armour on instead of the red or blue amour of the other Elites they had faced.

The Elite growled and dived at the soldier, who yelped and jumped out of the way. The Elite crashed into the floor, twisting It's neck at an awkward angle. It did not rise again afterwards.

_Must have broken It's neck. _Eve thought.

However, that was not the end of it. The door's beep was heard again. This time, three major Grunts lumbered out into the room, all armed with needlers.

"Contact!" the soldier armed with the M90 shotgun shouted. "Lot's of contact!"

"No Covenant!" John said sarcastically to the soldier with the battle rifle. "You just had to open your mouth!"

Eve fired a round of ammo at the Grunts. One of the Grunts yelled as it flipped backwards onto the floor, dead. John and the rest of the squad also fired on the Covenant, killing the two remaining Grunts.

"Yeah!" one of the ODST soldier's exclaimed. "We owned 'em,"

"At ease," John replied. "That's just the first. They'll be more where they came from,"

John was right. Just a few seconds after the first Covenant squad was killed one of the doors, on the room's other side wall, opened. Three minor Grunts and two minor Jackals ran out from the corridor and opened fired on the squad. One of the Jackals then spotted Eve and began to charge up his weapon. When his weapon was fully charged, he fired it at Eve. Eve saw the shot coming and jumped behind one of the large shapes in the room. The shot hit the shape and disintegrated.

Eve then jumped out from behind the shape and fired a barrage from her plasma rifle at the Covenant. One of the Jackals' shields was hit repeatedly by the barrage of blue blasts. Finally, it deactivated from being hit too much. Her target revealed, Eve fired three more blasts at the Jackal, scoring direct hits in the head and chest, killing it.

Eve then fired on the Grunts, who had pinned down two soldiers behind another of the large shapes. All three Grunts were hit and killed. The last Jackal went to fire on Eve, but John fired a burst from his battle rifle at the alien, killing it.

"Oh yeah!" one of the soldiers exclaimed. "We beat them again,"

"They'll be more," Eve said.

The other door, on the same side of the room as the door the second Covenant squad entered through, opened up and two minor Elites ran in brandishing plasma rifles. They fired on the squad, but missed their targets who had dived behind cover.

"We have to hurry," John said to Eve, both had dived behind one of the large things.

Eve looked around the side of their cover. The object they were hiding behind was about twenty eight feet long. It went past where the Elites were standing. It was perfect. They could easily flank the Elites.

"Keep them distracted," Eve said to John, who replied with a nod.

Eve got up and ran round the side of the object. As she got closer to the end of the object, her grip on the plasma rifle tightened. They had to be quick in getting our of here or the captain would be dead by the time they reach him.

Eve reached the end of the object. She peeked her head out from the side and saw the backs of the Elites. They had no idea that Eve was behind them. Eve slowly raised her plasma rifle and aimed it at the Elites. Then, she pulled the trigger.

A barrage of blue blasts flew out at the Elites. Because the Elites' back had little armour, they were killed almost instantly. John walked out from behind the object he was using as cover.

"Good work, Eve," he said. "Right, let's find a way outta here,"

"Sarge," one of the soldiers said. "One of the blast doors is opening.

The soldier pointed at one of the blast doors at the other end of the room. He was right. It was slowly opening. The squad felt like they were about to go up against some mighty beast. They raised their weapons at the door to get ready to fire at whatever was coming.

When the door opened fully, there were no Covenant. No Grunts, no Elites, no Jackals, not even any Hunters. This was strange. Eve, cautiously, approached the door, her plasma rifle raised and her finger on the trigger. She knew that if any Covenant were waiting for them, they would ambush so she had to be extra vigilant.

Eve reached the door. She peeked her head down a small, but wide corridor. There was another blast door diagonal from the one Eve was at. So this must be a path for vehicles from whatever room was behind the other door to the room Eve and the squad were in.

"It's all clear," Eve called to the squad.

The squad ran over to where Eve was standing.

"That's strange," John said to Eve as they headed down the corridor towards the door. "I thought the Covenant would have troops in here."

"Maybe they do, but are waiting for us on the other side of the door," Eve replied.

The squad reached the door and tried to open it. Eve helped and all tried to open the door with all their strength, but it wouldn't budge one bit.

"Damn!" John hissed as he let go of the door. "This door's locked. There's no where we can get through,"

"Hang on," Eve said. "Maybe there's a way around this door. I'll go look for one, you guys wait here,"

"Alright, everyone guns up in case any Covenant show up," John ordered.

Eve ran back up the corridor into the room from where they arrived into the ship. She walked over to the nearest door, hoping it was unlocked. Remarkably, it was. The door opened, showing Eve the pink and purple corridor. Eve, raising her plasma rifle, walked into the corridor. She was afraid that Covenant were waiting nearby to ambush her.

When Eve reached the end of the corridor, she found herself in another corridor that was twice as long as the one she just came out of. There was another corridor that led to the other door on this side of the room. There was also a door at the far end of the corridor behind her and a door several metres away in front of her.

Eve walked forward towards the door in front of her. It beeped loudly as it opened. When it did, she saw a Grunt, armed with a plasma pistol, standing in front of her. The Grunt had been heading her way through the door. The Grunt squealed and ran round a left turning that led into another corridor, waving his arms and shouting in terror. Eve, determined to silence the Grunt before he alerted any other nearby Covenant, chased after the Grunt. Unfortunately, she was not quick enough.

When Eve ran into the next corridor, the Grunt had been joined by a patrolling Jackal and a major Grunt, both armed with plasma pistols. All three fired on Eve, who took cover behind the wall. The barrage of green blasts hit the wall, fizzing and disintegrating as they did. Eve waited for a few tense seconds.

"Aw, c'mon!" she hissed. "End already!"

After a few seconds, the barrage stopped. This was Eve's chance. She ran out from behind the wall and fired on the three Covenant soldiers, hitting both Grunts and the Jackal. The bodies thumped to the floor and never rose again.

Eve ran past the three dead Covenant troops towards the end of the corridor. She went down a right turning which the corridor rose upwards at a twenty degree angle for about fifteen feet. Eve reached the top of the corridor and walked through an open doorway.

She found herself in another large room. However, she was on a walkway about thirty feet up from the floor. Below her, more of the large objects she had seen in the last room were visible. Eve then saw several tall, bulky figures moving about on the floor below. They were Elites, about three of them.

Eve ran onward across the walkway towards another door at the walkway's end. When she reached, the door beeped loudly as it opened. Eve ran through the doorway quickly in fear that the Elites would have heard the door beep and look up to see who was going through it.

Eve found herself in another corridor that went down at a twenty degree angle. Eve ran down the corridor, turned left into another, which also went down at a twenty degree angle, and ran down that one. Suddenly, she screeched to a halt near the end of the second corridor when she heard voices. They were high pitched. Grunts! The problem was, how many of them were there? And were they alone?

Eve raised her plasma rifle and peeked her head out from behind the wall. Down the end of the corridor, in a doorway, were three minor Grunts. They were all armed with needlers, so Eve had to kill these Grunts quickly before they had a chance to fire on her. Eve breathed in and jumped out from behind the wall, firing a barrage of blasts at the Covenant.

The Grunts were taken completely by surprise and killed instantly. However, the noise had been enough to attract one of the minor Elites' attention. The Elite ran over to the doorway, where he saw Eve and immediately fired on her. Eve dodged the blast by jumping behind the wall. The blasts suddenly stopped. Eve went to look out from behind the wall but the Elite had ran up to where she was and lunged at her. Eve was pinned to the floor. The Elite hit Eve several times in head. Eve clenched her hand into a fist and threw a punch at the Elite. The Elite was hit right in the eye. It roared in pain. The Elite got up and staggered back a few feet, clutching It's eye. Eve took this opportunity to get up and run. She ran past the Elite, who growled and chased after her.

Eve ran into the large room, this time on the floor. Around the room's side walls were more small doors, some completely hidden by the big objects scattered around the room. Eve was about to run towards one of them when she pinned down again, this time another minor Elite.

The other minor Elite ran out of the corridor up to his comrade, who had pinned Eve to the floor. He then pulled out an energy sword and activated it. The sword crackled small volts of highly dangerous static electricity between It's two ends. Eve began to panic. If the Elite drove that weapon into her, it would be enough to kill her.

In one last desperate attempt, Eve clenched her hand into a fist and threw another punch at the Elite holding her down. At the same time, she used her legs to kick the Elite in the back. She must have either broken the Elite's back or really stunned the Elite because it fell to the floor and couldn't get up. Eve then grabbed the other Elite's legs and pulled them forward. The Elite yelled as It's head smacked against the floor. The armour on It's head cracked and one part cut into the Elite's head, causing blood to trickle out of the wound. Eve then grabbed the energy sword, which the Elite had dropped on the floor when Eve pulled his legs, and thrust it into the Elite's chest. The coughed up a little purple blood before he lay still.

Eve breathed a sigh of relief and walked over towards the blast door. As she got closer, she could hear her comrades voices on the other side of the door.

"It's all clear, sarge," Eve heard one of the soldiers say.

"Alright," came John's reply. "Everybody stay cool. Yell if you see anything."

Eve walked up to a tall purple pillar standing next to the door. There was a holographic panel in the pillar. Light blue holograms of, what appeared to be, switches were visible. Eve rested a hand on one of the switch holograms. A loud whirring sound was heard. The blast door slowly parted in two and moved into the walls. John and his squad, their guns raised, walked into the room.

"Good work, Eve," John said.

"Thanks, John," Eve replied. "We need to go on, but I don't know which door leads to where."

"Squad, move towards each of the doors and see if they open," John ordered. "If they do, yell and we'll go through that one,"

The squad separated and each member ran to different small doors scattered around the side of the room. Eve was left with one that was near the blast door on the room's left wall. She walked over to the door. It beeped loudly before opening.

"John," she called. "This door's open,"

"Good work," John replied. "Alright squad, follow Eve,"

Eve ran down the corridor, the squad followed her. They went down a left turning, down that corridor, a right turning, down that corridor. Suddenly, the squad came to a sudden halt outside another door. Eve, cautiously, stepped closer to the door. It beeped loudly and opened. The group were greeted by a shocking sight.

They were in a docking bay. This ship's docking bay was huge! Bigger than any docking bay, or any room for that matter, that the squad had ever seen. The length of the room must have been about sixty metres by about thirty in width. There were walkways alongside the right wall of the docking bay that went up about two floors and sticking out from the first walkway was a tall rectangle shaped block that had a floor on top of it and almost cut the docking bay into two sections, leaving the space both in front and behind it, underneath the walkway, about ten to twenty feet long. At the front of the docking bay were two colossal rectangle shaped holes, one either side of the rectangle, that were one hundred feet high and half as wide. Outside, the squad could see the dark sky littered with stars and the rocky desert landscape below. Hovering still in the air in front of the second, and top, walkway were Covenant drop ships. They had their controls locked and could not be unlocked unless being used. Also, scattered around the room were more big objects, but there were also small objects that were about twelve feet long. Again, there was not enough light to see what the vehicles were.

The squad snapped out of their trance when a barrage of blasts fired down on them from the top of the rectangle. Eve dived behind a nearby small object with John whilst the rest of the squad took cover behind several pillars coming down from smaller sections of the walkways that came off the main walkways.

Eve slightly peeked her head out from behind the object she was hiding behind. She looked up at the top of the rectangle and saw another Covenant turret, as usual being manned by a Grunt, firing down on their position. Also on the top of the rectangle were several Covenant Elites and Grunts.

Luckily, Eve still had her sniper rifle. Eve pulled it out of the vest on her back, loaded another bullet into it and aimed the weapon up at the turret. Through her scope's view, Eve set the rifle on the Grunt sitting in the turret's seat. Eve then pulled the trigger.

The Grunt manning the turret let out a yell as the bullet went straight through It's head. The Grunt fell off the turret's seat sideways onto the rectangle's floor, dead. The Elites retaliated with their own gunfire. They were all armed with needlers, but they were too far for their projectiles to reach the squad. One of them then headed towards the main walkway the rectangle was attached to.

Big mistake. The movement of the Elite drew Eve's attention to it. She then loaded another bullet into her sniper rifle, set the scope at the end of the rectangle and fired. The bullet ripped through the Elite's chest, killing it. John then fired a burst from his battle rifle at the other Elite, killing it with a hit to the face.

"Leader's dead!" one of the Grunts yelled. "Run away!"

The Grunts ran off the rectangle onto the main walkway. That was one less enemy group the squad had to deal with.

"Alright, It's all clear," John said to his troops.

Eve got up and ran towards the gap between the rectangle and the docking bay's ship exit. When she reached the gap, a Covenant drop ship flew in through the hole in front of her. It's left doors opened and Eve saw an Elite jump out with two Grunts and a Jackal.

"Heads up, we got company on the walkway," she said to John and the squad as they ran up to her.

"Get your rifles ready, marines," John ordered. "We're in for a gunfight."

The squad members loaded their rifles and got ready to battle the Covenant. Some of them knew they might not survive this.

Eve ran into the space below the drop ship. It's cannon aimed down at her and fired several blasts. Eve dodged them by hiding behind a nearby big object. The drop ship then ceased It's firing. A whirring sound filled the air as the drop ship flew backwards out of the hole and then disappeared behind the side of the ship.

Eve got up from behind the big object. Movement on the second walkway caught her eye. It was the Elite.

"Up there!" Eve shouted, pointing up at the Elite.

The sound of a barrage exploded in the docking bay. The squad fired round after round at the Elite. The Elite took a really hard pounding. It's shield shone brighter than ever. It was really under stress from all the bullets and because it was being hit so much the Elite found it hard to dive behind cover.

Finally, the shield was broken. Eve fired two last rounds at the Elite's head, hitting it and killing it instantly.

"Which way do we go?" one of the soldiers asked. "All the doors back there were locked."

"I don't know," Eve replied.

Just then, another nearby small door opened. It wasn't good. There were two Hunters standing in the doorway, both were looking at the squad. If they had any eyes, they would be glaring and filled with hate and a desire to kill their enemies. Eve gulped. This was not going to be easy.

Suddenly, one of the Hunters fired a projectile at Eve, who dived out of the way. The projectile exploded where Eve was standing just milliseconds earlier. The other Hunter ran forward towards the squad. It then brought It's huge metal sword back and then swung it at one of the squad members. The squad member jumped out of the way. The sword then hit one of the small objects, causing it to fly through the air and hit a wall.

Eve got up and fired a shot from her sniper rifle at the Hunter. The shot hit the Hunter's armour. Not good. The Hunter turned towards Eve and charged at her. When it was about twenty feet away, it swung It's sword at her. Although the sword missed Eve, it knocked the sniper rifle out of her hands, causing it to fly through the air and hit a wall. The rifle snapped in two like a twig. The two broken pieces fell to the floor.

Eve jumped backwards as the Hunter made another swing with It's sword. John fired a burst from his battle rifle at the Hunter's orange weak spot on It's back. The Hunter shot round and made a low, growling noise. This was Eve's chance. Eve took out her plasma rifle from her vest and fired a barrage at the Hunter's weak spot. The Hunter was hit several times by the powerful blasts. Finally, after taking several powerful hits, the Hunter let out a weak growl as it slumped forward onto the floor, dead.

One down, but Eve didn't have time to celebrate. The other Hunter was still alive. The other massive creature had just finished another swing with his sword at a squad member, missing him. Then, the Hunter saw Eve and fired a projectile at her. Eve screamed and dived out of the way, but not quick enough.

BOOM! The projectile exploded, throwing Eve into one of the big objects. Eve groaned as she got up. Her vest had been torn from her back by the projectile's blast radius. It was on the floor, smoke rising from it.

"Eve, look out!" John shouted.

The Hunter charged towards Eve again. Eve only had a few seconds to react. She was too hurt to jump again, so she had to either fight, or be crushed. Eve picked up her plasma rifle from the ground and, when the Hunter was just a few feet away, swung it at the Hunter. Surprisingly, the Hunter swayed sideways. Despite being almost twice Eve's size, strength and weight, the Hunter was hurt by a melee attack by a human, something that had barely happened before on the battlefield. The Hunter growled as it looked back at Eve. However, Eve fired a barrage of blue blasts at the Hunter. The Hunter was hit numerous times in the head before it finally slumped forward onto the floor, dead.

"Good work," John said. "Now let's find a way outta here,"

"How?" Eve asked, scanning the room. "There's no way to get out of here except through the way we came."

"Hey, Sarge," one of the soldiers called. John turned to look at him.

"Are Hunter's weapons still operational even when their dead?" the soldier asked.

"Yeah, why?" John aksed.

"We can use it on one of these doors," the soldier explained. "All we have to do is use the cannon manually and fire it on a door. It'll blast right through it,"

"Good thinking," John said. "But what do we use?"

"Use this one," another soldier answered, pointing to a small door near the docking bay's left hanger door.

Eve ran up to the first dead Hunter. She grabbed the cannon and, using all her strength, managed to lift the cannon several feet off the ground. John and the rest of the squad ran over and helped in lifting the titanic weapon sot it aimed towards the door. John then put his hand down a small bit of space between the Hunter's arm and the edge of the cannon into the weapon. His fingers began feeling round to find the trigger. Finally, they touched something big. John grabbed the object inside the cannon.

BOOM! A projectile flew out from the cannon and smashed straight into the door. The door literally exploded, leaving a huge hole where it once stood. The burning remains flew into the corridor behind the doorway, or what was also left of it.

John pulled his hand out from the Hunter's cannon.

"Alright, let's keep moving," he ordered.

Eve lead the squad through the doorway and up the corridor, that rose up at a twenty five degree angle for about twenty feet. Eve lead the squad up this corridor, round a right turning, down that corridor, that also rose at a twenty degree angle for about ten feet, then down a smaller corridor, that was straight. The squad suddenly stopped near a left turning into another corridor.

Two Elites were standing guard half-way down the next corridor. They were facing the opposite direction from where the squad was. Eve raised her plasma rifle.

"Take out the one on the right on my mark," she whispered to John, who replied with a nod.

John rose his battle rifle slightly so it was aiming at the head of the Elite on the right.

"Get ready," Eve whispered, tightening her finger on the plasma rifles trigger."One…Two…THREE!"

A barrage smashed right into the backs and heads of the Elites. Both were hit many times before their shields were destroyed and crumpled to the corridor's floor, dead.

Eve ran forward over the dead Elites; the squad followed. The squad finally came to a small door at the end of the corridor. Eve took a step towards it. The door beeped loudly as it opened. The squad found themselves on the first walkway from the docking bay's ground floor.

Eve stepped out onto the walkway. The squad was at the right end of the walkway. Eve looked down towards the other end of the walkway. Several Grunts had their guns raised, pointing around randomly. It was obvious that they did not see where the squad went and were probably panic-stricken by the squad's sudden disappearance.

"Any Covenant down there?" John asked Eve.

"Three Grunts," Eve replied. "I can't see any Elites though,"

"Let's just kill 'em," a soldier standing near the back of the squad said. "More Covenant could arrive here if we don't hurry,"

"Alright," John said. "Get ready to fire,"

The squad loaded their weapons. Eve ran out into the walkway.

"HEY!" she shouted.

The Grunts spun round and saw Eve. Also, two Jackals and an Elite ran out from behind a side wall. The Elite shouted something and the Covenant charged towards Eve.

_That's right. Keep coming. _Eve thought.

Eve then jumped behind the side wall and knelt down next to John in the middle of the squad. She took out her plasma rifle and raised it. Seconds later, the Covenant squad ran out into the squad's view.

The sound of gunfire exploded in the room. A hail of bullets smashed right into the Covenant. The Elite yelled as it was hit numerous times before it fell backwards onto the floor, dead. The Grunts fell sideways onto the walkway floor as the bullets hit them in the head, chest and neck. The Jackals used their shields to protect themselves from the bullets, but Eve's plasma rifle blasts broke through the shields and threw both of the Jackals over the edge of the walkway to the floor below.

When the dust settled, Eve got up and ran round the side wall, the squad followed her. She lead them to the other end of the walkway and disappeared behind the side wall. "Eve, wait up," John called as he and the rest of the squad were only near the rectangle attachment onto the walkway.

Suddenly, Eve flew out from behind the wall onto the floor. She got up and fired a burst from her plasma rifle at an enemy behind the wall the rest of the squad couldn't see. Eve was then lifted up into the air by an unseen force. It was then John realised that the enemy she was firing at was a stealth Elite, who wore silver armour which they could use to turn themselves invisible.

John fired a burst of ammo from his battle rifle. The burst hit something invisible. John didn't know if he had critically wounded the Elite, but it was enough to break the shield and make the Elite drop Eve onto the walkway's floor. The Elite's form began to appear until he was fully visible, his shield having been damaged by John's bullets.

Eve shot up onto her feet and threw a punch at the Elite. The Elite staggered backwards for a few seconds before it fell onto the floor, out cold. Eve then grabbed her fist, a look of pain came upon her face. "Hurt?" John asked.

"Yep," Eve replied.

After a few seconds, the pain went away. Eve, who was glad that her fist was not bleeding from punching the Elite, lead the squad through an open doorway into another corridor, which rose up at exactly the same height as the first corridor the squad went through to get up to the walkway. Eve lead the squad up this corridor and down a left turning. However, they were again brought to an abrupt halt and Eve pushed the squad behind a wall from the corridor they had just come out of.

"Eve, what is it?" John asked.

"There's a Hunter down the other end," Eve replied.

John peeked his head out from behind the wall. Eve was right. Twenty metres away at the other end of the corridor was a Hunter. It was facing the opposite direction from the squad's view but it was also walking towards the other end of the corridor. It was patrolling, and it would not be long before it would turn and head back this way.

"What do we do?" John asked.

"Don't worry, I've got an idea," Eve answered.

Before John could ask what her idea was, Eve crept out from behind the wall towards the Hunter. As she got closer she raised her plasma rifle, aiming at the Hunter's weak spot. When she was about two metres from the massive creature, she fired.

The Hunter slumped forward onto the floor, dead. However, but also luckily, Eve's plasma rifle stopped firing after she fired the shot that killed the Hunter.

"Damn," Eve said. "Out of juice,"

"Good work, Eve," John said as he and the rest of the squad ran up to her. "Let's keep moving."

The squad ran left into another corridor, down that one, up another that was at the same angle and height as the first corridor from the walkway and then right down another towards another open doorway.

The squad walked out from the doorway onto the walkway. They were on the second and top walkway. Below them was the first walkway, the ground floor of the docking bay, the parked drop ship and the dead bodies of the Covenant soldiers the squad had killed.

A sudden screech drew the squad's attention to the main walkway. A Jackal activated It's shield and fired on the squad, who all except Eve, ran back into the corridor, narrowly missing the blasts by inches. One of the blasts hit Eve. Her holographic shield meter appeared above her wrist and began flashing red. After a few seconds, it disappeared, meaning her shield was fully recharged again.

Eve ducked behind one of the pillars attached to the walkway going down to the ground floor. She didn't have a weapon on her. Her sniper rifle was broken in two on the ground floor, her pistol had been destroyed along with the vest thanks to the Hunter and the plasma rifle had run out of ammo. She really needed a weapon to defend herself.

"Eve!" John shouted to her from the corridor. "Catch!"

John threw Eve his battle rifle. Eve jumped up and caught it and landed safely back on the walkway.

"Thanks, John" Eve said to him.

Eve jumped out from behind the pillar and fired a burst of ammo at the Jackal. The Jackal failed to pull up It's shield to defend itself and was hit in the chest and instantly killed. Eve then ran over to the Jackal's body and picked up It's plasma pistol.

"Good work, Eve," Eve heard John say as they ran up to her.

"Thanks," Eve replied, passing the battle rifle back to John.

Eve lead the squad up the walkway towards a small door at the end. However, when they were about ten feet from the end, a blue blast flew past them and hit the wall.

"Get to cover!" John ordered.

The squad jumped behind any nearby pillars or the wall. Eve looked down the way they had just came and saw an Elite with three Grunts. They were firing like mad at the pillars and he wall, narrowly missing the soldiers.

Then, one of the Grunts took out a plasma grenade, lit it and threw it towards the squad. Eve saw it coming and smacked it back towards the Grunt using her plasma pistol. The grenade landed on the Grunt's head.

"AHHH!" the Grunt screamed. "GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"

The Grunt began running around like crazy. He looked like some weird lighthouse since the grenade was lighting up most of the walkway. The other members of the Grunt's squad dived away from their comrade.

BOOM! The grenade exploded. Eve looked out from behind her cover to see the Grunt gone. He hadn't flown over the edge of the walkway or had been thrown to the back of the walkway by the force of the explosion, he just literally disappeared.

_That grenade must have obliterated the Grunt completely._ Eve thought.

That was not the end of it. The Elite and two remaining Grunts emerged from behind their cover, which was the pillars at their end of the walkway, and fired on the squad. Eve pointed her plasma pistol at them, charged it up and fired. The blast flew out from the gun and hit one of the Grunts. The Grunt was hit so hard by the blast that it caused the creature to stumble backwards over the edge of the walkway. The Grunt screamed as it fell towards the docking bay's floor, but a sudden thud abruptly stopped the screaming.

The Elite growled and fired a barrage at Eve, who back ducked behind the wall. One of the soldiers, hiding behind a pillar across the walkway from Eve,, took out a fragmentation grenade and threw it at the Elite. The did not see the explosive device coming until it was about a foot away.

BANG! The grenade exploded. The Elite and one of the two Grunts were killed in the explosion. The last Grunt panicked and ran out from behind his cover, a pillar, and ran down towards the other end of the walkway, waving his arms in terror. The soldier who threw the grenade fired a burst of ammo at the Grunt from his battle rifle. The Grunt let out a yell as it fell forwards onto It's stomach, dead.

"Good work, troops," John said. "We better keep moving,"

The squad ran through the open doorway. They found themselves in a long corridor. At the left end, about sixty metres away, was another door. Scattered along both sides of this corridor were smaller corridors.

"Load your weapons and stay sharp," John ordered. "There could be Covenant down this corridor."

The squad reloaded their weapons. It was a good thing too because as soon as they were done, a patrolling Jackal stepped out of one of the smaller corridors about half-way down the main corridor and saw the squad. He let out a screech and activated his shield. Almost immediately afterwards, two more Jackals, one a major, and a major Grunt ran out from the other smaller corridors and fired on the squad dived behind cover. Eve jumped into a smaller corridor a few feet behind the squad. She peeked her head out from the corridor, only to duck behind the cover when a green blast hit the nearby wall.

Eve stood up and leaned against the wall. She then aimed her plasma pistol around the side of the wall and fired four shots. The green blasts flew down the corridor and hit the Jackal who spotted the group just as he was firing on the rest of the squad, who were taking cover in the doorway. The Jackal was hit in the head and chest. It fell forwards onto the floor, dead.

The other two Jackals and the Grunt turned and fled towards the end of the corridor. The Jackals raised their shields over their head, hoping it would cover them. This did not work. The squad fired a barrage down the corridor, hitting both Jackals and the Grunt and killing them.

"Move up," John ordered.

Eve lead the squad down the corridor towards the door at the end . When they reached the door, it beeped loudly as it opened. The squad walked forward.

They found themselves in a large room. There were two trench-like holes in the floor that went down about Eve's height and were about thirty feet long. Above the two trenches, assumingly holding itself up, was a large circular platform. Around the edge of the platform were small pillars that were shining holographic symbols between them. There was a small ramp that led from the front of the ramp, which the squad could see, to the floor. The room had three more smaller doors. One in the same position as the door the squad were at but on the other side of the room, one against the right side wall near the door on the other side of the room and one on the right side wall near the door the squad was at.

On the platform was an Elite zealot. It's gold armour shined brightly from the light being reflected off the holograms. It was holding an energy sword. Around the room's floor were several Grunts that were curled up into balls, sound asleep and on the other side of the room was a minor Elite standing guard. The Covenant in this room were just seemingly emotionless. They were acting like there wasn't even a war going on.

Suddenly, the zealot Elite spotted the squad. He yelled something and pointed at the doorway. Instantly, the Grunts jumped up from their sleep and fired on the squad, as did the minor Elite.

The squad jumped behind the walls on the corridor's side of the doorway. Eve, however, jumped forward into the room and fired two blasts at the nearest Grunt, a minor. The Grunt was hit and fell sideways to the floor, dead.

Suddenly, Eve's shield lit up. She had taken several hits. She needed to get behind cover!

Eve ran towards the door behind her and jumped through it. She found herself in another corridor that was about half the length of the one the rest of the squad was in. "There's bad guy," a high pitched voice squeaked.

Unfortunately, Eve was not the only one in this corridor. A squad of Grunts were running up to the room after hearing the gunfire and had spotted Eve. One of the Grunts fired on her but Eve jumped into a smaller corridor, narrowly missing the blasts.

Eve aimed her plasma pistol out from the corridor she was in at the corridor were the Grunts were. She fired four blasts. Three yells then echoed down the corridor. Eve peeked her head out from behind the corridor's wall to see all three Grunts lying dead on the floor.

"That was close," Eve said to herself.

Suddenly, Eve was surrounded by a gold colour. The zealot Elite had charged into the corridor and was now intent on killing her. Luckily, Eve dodged the swipe the Elite made at her and ran back into the room, the Elite hot on her heels.

Whilst she was running, Eve fired a barrage at the other Covenant troops in the room. She managed to kill another Grunt and destroy the minor Elites' shield. Then, she ran underneath the platform and jumped over the first trench. The zealot Elite did the same. Eve jumped over the next trench and then grabbed hold of the platform's sides.

The zealot Elite jumped over the second trench and brought his sword backwards to strike Eve. Eve began to panic and tried to pull herself up onto the platform.

_C'mon _she thought.

Finally, Eve lifted herself onto the platform, with just milliseconds to spare. If she had not pulled herself up just now, she would have been killed. Eve breathed a sigh of relief. She had escaped the zealot Elite.

She was wrong. The zealot Elite jumped up onto the platform and growled at Eve. Eve gasped and fell onto the platform. She scrambled backwards but was stopped by one of the pillars. The Elite raised the sword up above his head. Now he just had to bring it down and his target would be dead. Eve began to panic. This was probably the end for her.

Suddenly, the Elite brought the sword down. Eve shifted sideways. A hissing sound filled the air. The sword had gone straight into the pillar and the Elite was using all his might to pull it out, but to avail.

Eve shot up onto her feet and kicked the Elite in the side. The Elite roared in pain and stumbled backwards, only to fall over the edge of the platform. A THUD indicated he hit the floor. Eve walked forward and looked over the edge of the platform. She saw the Elite lying on It's back on the floor. It was not dead, but knocked out.

"You alright, Eve?" Someone behind her asked.

Eve turned to see John and the squad on the platform.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Eve replied. John surveyed the room, then the holographic symbols.

"This must be the ship's control centre." he said. "If I remember reading a layout map of a Covenant battle cruiser correctly, the ship's prison cells are always near the ship's control centre."

"We better get moving," Eve said.

"We better leave some troops to stay here," John said. "They can stop any reinforcements coming in from behind us."

"Sarge," one of the soldiers said. "You and Eve go on. We'll cover you,"

"Alright," John replied. "Good luck,"

"Good luck, sarge," the soldier said.

Eve and John ran down the ramp, through the doorway into the corridor. They ran left towards the end and turned left down another long corridor. At the end was a Jackal standing guard. It was facing the opposite direction, having no idea there were enemy troops behind him. John fired a burst of ammo from his battle rifle at the Jackal. The bullets ripped through the creature's back, killing it instantly.

The two ran onward towards the end of the corridor. They turned right down another corridor, killing a Grunt guard as they did, then turned left into another corridor. Eve suddenly stopped herself and John when they were half-way down the third corridor.

There was a smaller corridor in front of them. It going off to the left. It also had a small door at It's end. It could lead anywhere. It might even lead to the prison cells containing the captain.

Eve walked down the corridor towards the door. It beeped loudly and opened. Eve walked into the room.

The room was dimly lit, the only source of strong light was coming from strange purple shield-like aura's in front of hexagon-like shaped cells. There were eight of them, four going across the left wall, four going across the right. At the end of the room was a small platform that had a pillar with a holographic symbol on it. Eve walked up onto the platform and put a hand on the hologram. At once, an electronic/whirring sound filled the room. The purple aura's then began to fade. They did so until they disappeared.

Eve and John were met by a gruesome sight. Several UNSC soldiers were lying dead in some of the cells. Some of the bodies had burn marks, untreated wounds and dry blood them. One even had a massive burn mark across his back, which was exposed through a torn part of the uniform, and there was even some blood still seeping from it.

Eve felt sorry for these soldiers. They must have gone under the worst torture anyone could ever face. She was also fearing the same thing was happening to the captain.

"It's horrible," John said.

"I know," Eve replied. "We have to hurry, they could be torturing the captain right now."

"But how do we know which brig he's in?" John asked. Eve. "I mean, there are probably multiple prison rooms scattered all over the ship. The captain could be in any one of 'em,"

"We'll find him," Eve replied. "I'm not giving up yet,"

Eve ran out of the prison room back into the corridor; John followed. The two ran on down the corridor. They turned right down another corridor, but were brought to an abrupt halt. A minor Elite was walking away from them down the corridor. He was patrolling. What really worried the two was that he was near another small corridor that led right. They were scared that if they alerted the Elite of their presence, he would fire on them, which would alert any Covenant in that room and they could kill the captain. They were not so sure if he was even in there or if the room was even a prison room, but it was better not to take the risk.

Eve ran, as quietly as she could, down the corridor towards the Elite. Her pace quickened when the Elite stopped all of a sudden. Then, she dived at the Elite, getting it round the waist and throwing both to the floor. The Elite drove It's elbow into Eve's chin. Eve retaliated by punched the Elite in the mandibles. John ran over and kicked the Elite in the stomach. Angered by this attack, the Elite, using all It's strength, lifted himself and Eve on the ground. Eve let go, only to have a whack round the head. Eve fell to the floor, groaning in pain. The Elite then rose It's foot above Eve to slam it down onto her. John dived into the Elite, but the alien threw him into a wall.

Eve, who had got up from the floor, kicked the Elite in the back. The Elite was either killed by the blow or stunned because it fell to the floor and did not get up again.

"Thanks John," Eve said as she helped John up. "You saved my life,"

"It's okay," John replied. "Let's keep moving,"

Eve nodded. The two ran up the small corridor towards the door. It beeped loudly as it opened. Eve and John were greeted by a shocking sight.

There were three Grunts sleeping around the room. There was a minor Elite standing guard near a pillar about half-way down the left wall and there was an energy sword moving at the back of the room. This room was also a prison room with a platform at the back of the room. There was also a pillar and a holographic symbol on the platform.

_A stealth Elite _Eve thought.

Suddenly, there was a roar. The minor Elite had spotted the two and had alerted the rest of the Covenant in the room of their presence. The sword then began floating towards the two. John fired a burst from his battle rifle at the stealth Elite. The Elite was hit. Small light blue sparks appeared in thin air. Then the Elite's form became visible. It became more and more clearer until the active camouflage was fully disabled. The stealth Elite roared and jumped up into the air towards the two. Eve charged up her plasma pistol and fired it. The blast hit the Elite in the face. The creature fell onto the floor at John and Eve's feet, dead.

Eve pushed John behind a nearby pillar when the three Grunts and the Elite fired a barrage at them. John fired another burst from his battle rifle at the Covenant, killing a Grunt. Then, the minor Elite ran forward, picked up his fallen comrade's sword and threw it at the two.

"Duck!" Eve exclaimed.

The two dived to the floor. Just in time as well because if they had been just a mere second later, they would have been dead. The sword hit the wall and got stuck.

Eve fired a blast at the Elite. It's shield shone up, but the Elite made no attempt to hide. It walked up to the two and kicked their weapons away from them. Eve went to grab It's legs, but the Elite stopped her by kicking her in the chest. It then picked her up by the neck and threw her to the other end of the prison room. The Elite then grabbed John and pushed him up against the wall. It then pulled out the energy sword from the wall, using It's strength since it was jammed in the wall pretty hard, and held it up to John's neck.

Eve groaned as she lifted herself up from the floor. When she saw the Elite about to kill John, rage built up inside her. She charged forward and pinned one of the Grunt's to the floor.

"AHHH!" the Grunt screamed. "Get bad guy off me!"

The other Grunt went to fire on Eve, but she kicked the weapon out of It's hand. The Grunt then screamed and ran out of the room, waving It's arms in the air in terror. Eve then wrestled the plasma pistol from the Grunt she had pinned to the floor and fired three shots at the Elite. The shots broke through the shield and went into the creature's chest, killing it. John fell to the floor. Eve then whacked the Grunt over the head with her plasma pistol, knocking it out.

John gasped for breath as he got up from the floor. "Thanks, Eve," he said.

"You saved my life.""You saved mine, I saved yours," Eve replied.

Eve then walked over to the platform and put a hand on the holographic symbol. The electronic whirring sound filled the air once again. The aura's at the cell's entrances faded away until they disappeared.

Eve saw several UNSC soldiers sitting against the walls in the cells. All of them were shocked and completely speechless when they saw Eve and John. It felt like some hero who they had not seen for years had suddenly appeared and was rescuing them.

"Eve!" one of them said, completely aghast. "You're here! I never thought you'd be able to fight your way through the defences to save us!"

"Well, John and a squad helped," Eve replied.

Eve looked through the cells and noticed someone was missing. That was when her mind went into the worst thought of what might have happened.

"Where's the captain?" she asked.

"He's in the cell at the end," another prisoner said, walking out of his cell and pointing down to the cell at the end of the left side of the room.

Eve ran down to the cell and looked inside.

There, lying on the ground, was captain McCrea.

"Captain!" Eve exclaimed. She ran up to the captain and knelt down beside him. She rested his body on her legs.

_Please don't be dead _Eve thought. _Please don't tell me we were too late._

Eve placed two fingers on the captain's pulse.

She breathed a sigh of relief. McCrea let out a weak breath. He was alive.

McCrea opened his eyes slightly and looked up at Eve.

"Eve…" he said weakly, holding a hand up which Eve took. "You came back,"

"I was not going to leave you behind, captain," Eve replied, a smile forming on her lips. "Who would lead us without you,"

McCrea let out a weak chuckle. He then lifted himself up from the floor and stood up. Eve did the same.

"Are you okay?" Eve asked him.

"Yeah, they worst they did to me was knock me out," McCrea replied. "Are you on your own?"

"No, John and squad of ODST's are here as well." Eve explained. "John's here with me and the rest of the squad is in the ship's control centre. John said we'd link up with them when we've rescued you,"

"Good work," McCrea replied. "Oh and Eve I have something for you,"

McCrea reached into his trouser pocket and took out a small square object that looked just like the data cord McCrea had given Eve when they were on the _Axiom_.

"Is that a data cord?" Eve asked, wide-eyed.

"Yes," McCrea replied. "In fact, Eve. There's something special about this one than the one you have. Get the other one out."

Eve did not what to do at first. She comes to rescue McCrea, then all of a sudden he pulls out another data cord and says is somehow different than the one she was protecting. Eve decided it was best to follow what McCrea was saying and see what happens. She placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it with two fingers. Nothing happened at first, then something rose out of her suit's shoulder. It was small and square shaped. After a second or two, the small square object lay on Eve's shoulder.

Eve picked up the data cord and handed it to McCrea. He placed it near the data cord he had. Eve couldn't tell for sure, but she was certain she saw something purple zap from the data cord McCrea had to the data cord Eve was tasked with protecting.

"Eve," McCrea said, holding up the data cord Eve had been ordered to protect. "Say hello to Auto,"

The next thing Eve knew, a small purple figure shot up from the data cord. Eve went wide-eyed. She had never seen anything like this before. The purple man stood about seven inches tall. He was wearing a UNSC high ranking's officer uniform. The exposed parts of his body, head, neck and hands, were see through. The man also had some weird purple/light blue lines flowing up his body. They seemed to form from his feet, where they would flow up his body and then disappear into his head.

"Greetings," the man said. "My name is Auto."

Eve didn't reply. She just stared at Auto. He knew it was obvious she had never seen anyone like him before.

"Don't worry," Auto said. "I don't bite."

"Auto here is an Intelligent Agent," McCrea explained. "He is an avatar who was created with a copy of Dr. Alfred Martinez's brain. Sadly though, the doctor died about a month or so before the war began. Anyway, Auto here can disable ships, hack into Covenant information and absorb and delete any new information. Oh, and he stays in data cords and can talk to you through your suit."

"That's right," Auto said. "Pleased to meet you, Eve,"

Auto held up his small holographic hand to shake Eve's. Eve was uncertain at first, but then held up her hand and closed it round Auto's. It was incredible. Even though Auto was a computer program, she could actually feel his hand in hers. The two shook and released their hands.

"Okay, Auto," McCrea said. "Time to move to a new owner."

Auto nodded and disappeared back into the data cord. McCrea then handed the data cord to Eve, who placed it on her shoulder. Like the first time, the data cord just laid there. Then, the data cord began to morph with the suit and sank into it, disappearing from sight.

"Interesting," Eve heard Auto say. "Your suit's architecture isn't much different from the _Axiom's_. And I've never been in a woman's bodysuit before,"

"Don't get any funny ideas," Eve replied.

"Alright," McCrea said, walking out of his cell. Eve followed him. "Marines lock and load your weapons,"

"Yes sir," a squad of soldiers said.

McCrea stood at the centre of the prison room. John and a group of three marines lined up in front of him. Two of the marines were holding plasma pistols. The third marine was holding a plasma rifle.

"I've got something to say," McCrea said. "Whilst the Covenant had us held up in the prison cells, I heard the guards talking about this ring world. They call it Halo."

All of a sudden, Auto's spoke again. However, this time he was speaking through some COM built into the data cord. This allowed everyone in the room to hear him.

"_One moment, sir. I'm accessing the Covenant battle net. Whoa, I can't believe this. According to the data in their networks, the Covenant believe the ring has some kind of deep religious significance. If I'm analyzing this data correctly, they believe that Halo is some kind of weapon. One with vast, unimaginable power."_

"He's right," McCrea said. "I heard the guards say that 'whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the entire universe'."

"_Now I see… Captain, I've intercepted a few transmissions about a Covenant search team, scouting for a 'Control Room'. At first, I thought they were looking for the bridge of a cruiser I damaged during the battle above the ring. But they must be looking for Halo's control centre."_

McCrea shook his head, an anxious look came upon his face. This was not good news.

"Now that's very bad news," he said. "If Halo is a weapon and the Covenant gain control of it, they'll use it against us and wipe out the entire human race." McCrea turned to face Eve. "Eve, Auto," he said. "I have a new mission for you two. We need to beat the Covenant to Halo's control centre. Your our best hope now."

"Yes sir," Eve said, giving a salute.

McCrea then reached into his back trouser pocket and pulled out an M6C magnum pistol. He loaded a clip into the weapon.

"They didn't search me well enough," he said. "Alright, marines. Let's move."


	18. Escape from the Truth and Reconciliation

Eve lead the squad out of the prison cell room. They ran into the long corridor, ran left back up the corridor, ran left down the next corridor, past the first prison cell room Eve and John had searched, turned right into the next corridor and ran down that one. Suddenly, Eve brought the squad to an abrupt halt when they reached the end of the next corridor.

A Jackal was standing guard half-way down the corridor, his shield was activated and he was looking up and down the corridor. The squad took cover behind the wall of the last corridor.

"What are going to do?" one of the marines asked.

"I got him," Eve answered.

Eve charged up her plasma pistol and aimed it out from behind the wall down the corridor. She then released her finger on the trigger. The shot soared down the corridor towards the target. The Jackal spotted the shot but before it could raise It's shield the shot hit it in the head, killing the Jackal.

"Good work," McCrea said.

The squad ran down the corridor. They turned right into the corridor and ran down that one. They suddenly stopped when they were near a smaller corridor that led to a small door. Eve recognized where they were.

"Here's the control centre," she said. "The rest of the squad said they were going to meet us here,"

Eve walked towards the door, the squad behind her. The door beeped loudly as it opened. A shocking sight greeted the squad.

Two energy swords were floating in the room. One was on the platform, the other was near the other entrance door on the other side of the room.

Suddenly, a loud roar filled the air in the room. Next thing the squad knew, the two energy swords were heading straight towards them!

"Fire!" McCrea ordered.

A barrage exploded in the room. The bullets and blasts collided with the Elite that had jumped down from the platform. The Elite's form began to appear. A blast from Eve's plasma pistol hit the Elite in the head. The shield shone up and disappeared as the Elite was fully visible. Eve fired two more blasts at the Elite, killing it.

"Duck!" John shouted.

The squad dived to the floor as the second Elite made a swipe with It's energy sword. Eve reached forward and grabbed something hard. It must have been the Elite's legs. Eve pulled towards her with all her strength. Next thing she heard was a thud. The energy sword fell to the floor next to her. Eve grabbed it and thrust it into something hard. Purple blood poured from where the sword had been trusted into. Then, an Elite's body suddenly appeared, lying on It's back on the floor. The sword had gone right through It's chest and had instantly killed the Elite.

Eve got up and ran up onto the platform. She was met by a horrible sight. All of the ODST soldiers were lying on the platform's floor, dead. Some had blood coming out of their chests, others were lying up against pillars. It was truly a horrible sight.

Eve sighed and walked down from the platform.

"They're all dead," she said, sadly.

McCrea sighed.

"Another squad of troops, gone," he said. "Auto, call for evac,"

"_Yes sir._" Auto said _"Auto to Echo 419. We have the captain and we need extraction on the double."_

"_Negative, Auto. I've been engaged by Covenant air patrols and I'm having a tough time shaking them. You'll be better off finding your own ride. Sorry"_When Echo 419 finished the speaking the squad grew silent. Their only means of escape from the _Truth and Reconciliation _was under attack by Covenant air patrols. If they didn't find any means of escape, the Covenant would eventually trap and kill them.

"Aw man!" one of the marines whimpered. "We're trapped in here! We're screwed! We're screwed man!"

McCrea sighed.

"Give a rest, soldier," he said. "We're not giving up yet. Auto, if you and Eve can get us into one of those Covenant drop ships, I can fly us out of here."

_"Yes captain. There's a Covenant drop ship still docked, in the hanger,"_

"Alright, let's move out," McCrea ordered.

Suddenly, a loud beeping sound filled the room. It seemed to come from everywhere. All of a sudden, all of the doors opened. The squad were bombarded by blasts from four three strong packs of Grunts.

"Return fire!" McCrea ordered.

The squad fired back at the Grunts. Eve charged up her plasma pistol and fired the shot at the Grunts at the door where the squad had come into the room earlier on. The shot hit two of the three Grunts, killing both. John fired a burst of ammo from his battle rifle at the remaining Grunt, killing that one.

"RUN!" Eve yelled.

Eve lead the squad out of the room through the clear doorway. The remaining Covenant Grunts chased after them. The squad ran down the corridor towards the door which lead to the top walkway. Suddenly, more doors in the smaller corridors along the corridor the squad was in began flying open. Eve did not need to look behind her as they ran past the smaller corridors to tell more Covenant were joining the chase.

The squad finally reached the door at the end of the corridor. It beeped loudly and shot open. The squad ran out onto the walkway. Below them, a Covenant drop ship was parked.

"How do we activate the drop ship?" McCrea frantically asked.

"There!" Eve exclaimed, pointing over to a nearby pillar with holographic symbols on it.

Eve ran over to the pillar and placed a hand on the hologram. At once the drop shifted up and down slightly. Then, it turned and hovered up to the walkway's edge, where one of It's side doors opened.

"Everybody mount up," McCrea ordered. "Let's get onboard."

The squad boarded the drop ship. Just in time as well because as soon as the drop ship door closed, the walkway door opened and a massive squad of Covenant, made up of sixteen Grunts, four Elites and twelve Jackals, charged out onto the walkway and fired on the drop ship.

"We're under fire!" One of the marines shouted.

"I got 'em," McCrea said.

McCrea hovered the ship slightly higher until it almost touched the ceiling but the turret was over the walkway's edge. It then aimed at the Covenant squad and fired a barrage of purple blasts at them. The blasts ripped through the squad, killing all Elites, all the Jackals and most of the Grunts. The remaining Grunts screamed and fled back into the corridor.

"Alright," McCrea said. "Let's get out of here,"

The drop ship lowered slightly until it was about half-way down from the docking bay's floor.

"_Captain!"_ Auto exclaimed. _"Two Hunters coming down the top walkway!"_

Two Hunters had ran from the door at the other end of the top walkway and were running towards the drop ship to shoot it down.

Don't worry, I got 'em," McCrea replied.

McCrea turned the drop ship right so the front was facing the walkway and where the Hunters had stopped. The drop ship then flew forward and pushed both Hunters into the wall with a bone crushing force, killing the both.

"Nice one, sir," one of the marines said.

"Yeah, it was time for a little payback," McCrea replied.

The drop ship turned left until it was facing the massive hanger exit on the right side of the rectangle far below. It then flew forward out of the hanger and disappeared into the night sky like a bat flying high in the night.

The captain was rescued. The mission was complete.


	19. The Silent Cartographer

The next day

A new day dawned for Halo. The sun was shining, there was a little breeze in the air and nature's beauty once again bloomed out without interference from anyone or anything else.

In one area of the ring was a small island. It had a massive rock in the middle and large beaches that went around the island's sides. There were also multiple structures scattered around the island. The island itself was actually surrounded by a beautiful ocean with a light blue colour. It looked like some kind of tropical paradise.

In the air above the water, two Pelicans soared towards the island. One of the pelicans was Echo 419, at the front, the other was Bravo 022, flying behind Echo 419. On Echo 419's pelican was Eve, sitting with the soldiers. Auto was inside her suit and was going to aid Eve on this mission.

They were coming to this island to look for, what the Covenant had called, the Silent Cartographer. Apparently, after the rescue team returned to Alpha base with the captain, McCrea ordered an investigation into the Covenant's search for Halo's control centre. It was lucky enough when Auto managed to intercept several transmissions from a large fleet of Covenant drop ships heading straight towards the island. Among the transmissions, he found out that the Covenant were coming to the island because the Silent Cartographer was actually a map room that would lead the Covenant to Halo's control centre.

When Auto told McCrea this, he ordered a strike force to be formed up and sent to the island to stop the Covenant from reaching the Silent Cartographer before they got there first. Eve looked out of the open bay doors down at the water. She admired It's beauty. She remembered one time when she went to visit her mother on Earth shortly after she joined the E.R and she flew over the Caribbean waters in a transport plane. They were blue and clear, just like the ones she was looking at now.

Eve snapped out of her daydreaming when the Pelican reached the island's beaches.

"_We're approaching the LZ! It's gonna be hot! Get ready, marines!"_

Echo 419's pelican and Bravo 022's pelican descended until they were about forty feet above the beach's surface. They then turned so the rear of the ships were facing the beach.

"Watch it! Small arms fire incoming!" one of the soldiers shouted.

A barrage of blasts hit the sides of the pelicans. Eve ducked as one flew above her head and hit the wall. She looked out onto the beach as the pelican slowly hovered above the sand. There were Covenant on this beach. A lot of them. There were Grunts, Elites and Jackals. All armed to the teeth with fierce weaponry and they were firing a barrage at the intruders. She also saw a small bridge-like section of a structure come out from behind the top of the cliff and join up with another large cube-like section of the structure on the beach, creating an archway between the big cube section of the structure and mountain wall.

"_Give them hell, marines!"_

"Go, go, go," one of the marines sitting across from Eve ordered.

Eve jumped down onto the sand and took out her battle rifle. Several other marines jumped down from the pelican and followed Eve as she lead the attack.

Eve fired a burst of ammo from her battle rifle at a Grunt near a small boulder. The Grunt let out a yell as it flipped backwards onto It's stomach, dead. As Eve ran past the body, she fired two more burst at two major Grunts who were firing at a squad of marines who had come off from Bravo 022's pelican, killing both.

"Move up," Eve ordered.

The assault force fired on the Covenant as they neared the archway. An Elite was killed from a barrage of battle rifle and MA5B assault rifle bullets, two Jackals tried to hold back the wave of marines, but Eve and several other marines managed to flank them and kill them both and when a Grunt went to throw a grenade, it accidentally dropped it onto It's foot, causing it flee under the archway screaming in terror. The resulting explosion killed the Grunt and two nearby Jackals.

When the last Elite and two Grunts were killed underneath the archway, the assault force ran out to the other side and held position.

"_Area's secure," _Eve heard a soldier say from her ear radio. _"All hostiles have been eliminated," _

After the soldier stopped talking, Echo 419's voice crackled to life in Eve's ear radio.

"_Affirmative, Echo 419 inbound. Somebody order a warthog?"_

"Hey I didn't know you made house calls, Foe hammer," Eve heard a nearby marine say.

"_You know our motto. We deliver," _

Echo 419's pelican flew out from behind the side of the mountain and headed towards the squad. A warthog was just visible outside the pelican's resting area. When the pelican was near the squad, it stopped and slowly hovered to the ground. When it was about fifteen feet above the sandy surface, the metal pincers opened up, releasing the warthog. The warthog made a loud CLANK as it hit the ground. Echo 419's pelican then hovered back up into the air and flew away behind the hill.

Eve ran forward and got into the driver's seat. Two marines ran over. One got on the turret, the other got into the passenger's seat.

"Okay, let's move out," Eve heard Auto say from inside her head. "Let's go find the map room that will show the location to Halo's control centre."

Eve started the warthog. The engine hummed. Eve pressed a foot down on the accelerator. The wheels screeched loudly. Eve drove the warthog down the side of the beach towards the edge of the island. The path disappeared behind the mountain. Eve drove the warthog round the side of the island and continued onwards.

The group in the warthog found themselves in a large grass filled area. There was a large flat boulder situated next to the mountain's wall. Further up ahead, a small path went up a hill that was connected to the side of the mountain. However, there were also several Covenant troops scattered across this area. Two Jackals were standing guard on top of the boulder. At the bottom of the hill path, two Grunts and an Elite were standing guard. They were ordered not to let any humans past.

Eve drove the warthog towards the Covenant forces. When they were near enough, the machine gun turret chattered with machine gun fire. The Jackals failed to react quick enough and were instantly killed. However, the noise attracted the attention of the Elite and two Grunts, who fired on the warthog. The soldier in the passenger seat fired his battle rifle at the them. A Grunt was hit and fell sideways onto the ground, dead. Eve drove the warthog forward to full speed. The other Grunt failed to move in time and was squashed against the side of the mountain.

"Watch out!" the soldier in the passenger seat shouted.

Suddenly, Eve felt something grab her. The Elite grabbed her by the neck with It's hands and pulled her out of the warthog. Eve punched the Elite in the mandibles. The Elite growled and threw her to the ground. It rose It's foot above her head and was about to stamp it down.

Suddenly, the Elite was thrown forward over Eve onto the ground. The soldiers had fired at the Elite, killing it and saving Eve.

"Thanks, guys," Eve said as she got up.

"It's okay, Eve," the soldier in the passenger seat replied.

Eve got back into the driver's seat and drove the warthog up the path. When they got the top, Eve drove the warthog around the side of the mountain, where the group were greeted by a scary sight.

About sixty feet ahead of them was a structure. It seemed to be connected or built into the side of the mountain. There were three doors that led inside the structure. There was a metal floor outside the structure that seemed to act like some kind of platform because it was about forty feet above the ground. What was scary about this sight was that it was crawling with Covenant.

There were at least three Elites, one major, ten Jackals and fifteen Grunts. If this was how many were outside the structure, then there was no telling how many could be inside the structure.

"What do we do?" the soldier in the passenger seat asked.

"Use the machine gun," Eve answered.

The soldier on the turret nodded and aimed the turret at the Covenant. Then he fired.

The machine gun turret chattered with machine gun fire. The Covenant were taken completely by surprise and most were instantly killed by the bullets. The major Elite, however, and two Jackals ran inside the structure.

"Quick, we have to stop them," Eve said.

Eve drove the warthog onto the platform. She slammed a foot down on the brakes. The wheels screeched loudly as the warthog slowed to a halt. When it had, the three jumped out and head straight for the structure's doors.

The three reached the doors and looked inside the structure. There was a long corridor that was about twenty metres long. It led to a strange marking engraved on the wall. Suddenly, Covenant charged out from the right of the marking and fired at the three.

"_The Covenant are putting up a real fight," _Auto said from his data cord's built in com. _"The cartographer must be here. My analysis indicates that the map room is somewhere below us. Let's keep going inside."_

"Problem is, how?" Eve asked, looking down the corridor again, only having to duck behind the wall again because two blue blasts flew past where her head was just a moment earlier.

"I've got an idea," Auto said. "Eve, go through one of the side doors and wait there. The Covenant will most likely come up here to try and flank you."

"Okay," Eve replied.

Eve ran round the side of the structure through the right side door and waited. Blasts and bullets were flying in and out of the corridor. Then, loud footsteps could be heard. Suddenly, a major Elite, two minor Grunts and a Jackal ran out from the corridor. Eve saw her chance and fired a barrage from her battle rifle at the Covenant squad, killing the Jackal but also drawing the other three Covenant to her presence. However, the two soldiers took advantage of this and fired on the Covenant, killing the Elite and the two Grunts.

"Good work," Eve said. "Let's go,"

Eve ran down the corridor towards the marking; the soldiers followed. They ran down a slope-like corridor to the right, turned left down another slope corridor then left again into a small hall. The hall was about fifteen feet wide and twenty feet long. There were two massive windows on the right side wall that gave the squad a view of some huge shaft. There was also a door at the other end of the hall. Standing in that doorway was a zealot Elite.

The Elite was standing in a corridor on the other side of the doorway. It pounded on something on the wall in the corridor. Eve went wide-eyed. The door was closing!

"NO!" she yelled.

Eve sprinted forward. She had to stop that door from closing. If it did, how the hell were they going to get it open again. Eve got closer with every step.

Ten feet.

Six feet.

Two feet. Almost there!

Then, Eve felt like her life had been torn from her. It felt like her mission, her main priority, was wasted.

The door had closed.

Eve skidded to a halt and pounded on the door. Her anger was coming out in all It's fury. The Covenant had closed the door and now they could get to the cartographer without any interference.

After a few seconds, Eve ceased her pounding and slumped to the floor, breathing a heavy sigh.

"That's it then," she said quietly. "They've locked us out and we can't get through it."

"Interesting," Auto said as his avatar appeared on Eve's shoulder. "I underestimated the Covenant's understanding of Halo's subsystems,"

"And is this supposed to help?" Eve hissed at Auto.

"Look," Auto said to Eve. "We don't have enough firepower to get through this door. And don't bother trying to tear the turret off the warthog, It's not like that's going to do any better,"

"Then how the hell are we going to get through?" Eve asked Auto.

"I'll think of something," Auto replied. "Just head back up to the surface."

Auto disappeared back inside Eve's bodysuit. Eve shook her head slightly and stood up. She turned and ran back up towards the slope corridor; the soldier, who were not able to stop her to ask her what to do, followed. The three ran up the next slope corridor, then up the second before running back down the corridor out onto the structure's platform. When they were back on the platform, Auto's com activated again.

"_Auto to McCrea," _At first, static was heard. Then, captain McCrea's voice crackled to life over the com.

"_Go ahead, Auto. Have you found the control centre?"_

_"Negative, captain. The Covenant have impeded our progress. We can't proceed unless we can disable this installation's security systems."_

There was a slight pause. Then McCrea spoke again.

"_Understood. We're still en route to our weapon's cache drop zone. I may be out of contact when we get there. Here are your orders, I want you to use any means necessary to force your way into the facility and find Halo's control centre. We have to get to the centre before the Covenant, and failure, people, is not an option."_

Static was heard again for a moment or two. Then, Echo 419's voice crackled to life on the com.

"_Echo 419 to ground teams, I'll stay on station and keep an eye out for Covenant boogies."_

_"This is bravo 022. Second squad will be ready to roll as soon as everybody's topside."_

_"Good luck. McCrea out," _

Auto's com went static again. Then it turned off.

"By the looks of it, the only way we're going to get this door open is if we can disable It's security systems."

"Problem is, how do find out which structure it is?"Eve asked Auto. "There's many structures on this island. The security control could be in any one of them."

"We'll drive round the side of the island and search all the structures until we find it." Auto replied.

Auto was right. If they drove round them all, they would find it eventually. The island's structure security controls had to be here, but there was a threat to his idea. The Covenant would most likely have heavy defences at the structure. If they did, it was not going to be easy getting in.

Eve sighed and ran over to the warthog; the soldiers followed. She got into the driver's seat as one of the soldiers got into the passenger seat and the other got on the turret. When they were on, Eve started the engine again. She reversed the warthog and did a 180 degree turn until the front of the warthog was facing the way they drove up to the structure. Eve drove the warthog forward down the hill path and back onto the grass. She then turned left until they were driving along the water's edge.

As the warthog drove onto the grass below the structure's platform, the three saw a small path going around the side of the mountain. Eve drove the warthog towards the side path. When they reached it, they got what they were looking for.

About on hundred feet ahead, about sixty feet from the water, was a small gap between the mountain's rock. It was just visible between some tall trees that darkened the area and a small boulder about twenty feet from the gap. Unfortunately, there were several Covenant Jackals guarding the entrance. One scratched his chin. Another was patrolling between some fallen logs. "Well, at least we know where the way to the security structure is," the solider in the passenger seat said.

"Yeah, but there's no telling how many Covenant will be guarding the structure, let alone the way to it," Eve replied.

"We need to create a distraction," the soldier on the turret said. "Something that will lure the guards away and then one of us can sneak through into the path. Eve go wait over buy the trees and wait for us to give the signal,"

"Which is?" Eve asked.

"Gunfire and explosions," the soldier on the turret answered.

Eve rolled her eyes and got out of the warthog's drivers seat. She ran over to a nearby tree and hid behind it. She looked back at the warthog, which was now driven by the soldier who was in the passenger seat. The warthog drove out slightly into the water, so it could hide the noise of the engine slightly, and then it drove forwards and disappeared behind the boulder.

Eve waited a few seconds. Nothing. She waited a few more seconds. Still nothing! What the hell were they doing. Eve was about to run out from behind the tree when…

BANG! An explosion filled the air. Suddenly, machine gun bullets sliced through the air and hit the Jackals. Despite using their shields to deflect most of the bullets, the Jackals were quickly cut down, apart from three who took cover behind a fallen tree log.

Eve saw her chance and ran behind the Jackals, their hearing was blocked because of the noise of the battle. Eve ran into the gap, which was a path that led further into the mountain.

"Looks like we've found a path that leads to the island's interior," Auto said.

"And hopefully there'll be no more Covenant," Eve replied.

Eve saw the path go into a wide area up ahead. Her pace quickened into a run. When she reached the open area, she saw a large platform dug into the ground. There was a small cube-like structure that was next to the platform that connected to a larger structure on the other side of a small mountain wall. But, there were also Covenant. And they were Hunters, who were on the platform.

"Great," Eve mumbled. "There's Covenant here and it just has to be Hunters."

"Go around them, then," Auto said to her.

"I can't," Eve replied. "If they see me, they'll fire on me and that will just alert any other Covenant in the area."

Eve breathed in. The only way to get past these Hunters was to fight them, but it would be hard. The other times when she had fought a Hunter, she had help. Not this time. This time, it was up to her.

Eve ran forward towards the Hunters. She hoped to try and kill them when they had their backs turned. Eve jumped behind a nearby boulder and looked out. Both Hunter were looking the other way, completely oblivious to the enemy behind them.

_Great. _Eve thought. _They haven't stopped me yet. Now is my chance. _

BOOM! An explosion filled the air. The boulder Eve was behind was completely obliterated and the force of the explosion sent her flying to the ground. Eve groaned as she got up, only to panic when she saw one of the gigantic figures of the Hunters looming over here.

Suddenly, the Hunter raised It's sword and brought it down. Eve yelped and dived out of the way, only to jump again to avoid a projectile from the other Hunter. Eve ran behind another boulder near the mountain wall. She had to think of something quick because this boulder would not shield her if a projectile hit it.

"How the hell am I going to kill them?" Eve said to herself.

"Get them to charge at you," Auto told her. "If they charge at you, you can jump behind them and then kill them,"

"But how am I going to get them to charge at me?" Eve asked Auto.

"Fire on them," Auto replied. "That usually provokes them,"

Eve nodded and raised her battle rifle. She fired a burst at the Hunter's head, getting it in the exposed part. Although this did not kill the Hunter, it did provoke it into charging at Eve.

When the Hunter was near the boulder, It's huge metal sword sliced through the air and literally knocked the boulder out of the ground. The Hunter looked down at the impact site. Huh? Where was Eve?Suddenly, gunfire exploded into the air. The Hunter felt severe pain on It's back before it slumped forward onto the ground, dead.

_Yes! _Eve thought. _One down. One to go!"_

Then, it hit her. A horrible pain sensation ripped through her body. It was obvious that the other Hunter had hit her with It's word. Eve was thrown through the air and landed painfully on the platform. As Eve got up, the Hunter charged towards for another strike, but Eve was ready for it.

When the Hunter was near Eve, she jumped to the side and fired a burst of ammo at the side of the exposed back of the Hunter. The Hunter let out a loud growl before it slumped forward onto the platform's floor, dead.

Eve sighed.

"Those Hunters must be guards," Auto said. "That means the structure nearby must be the one with the security consoles,"

"Let's hope there are no more Hunters," Eve replied.

Eve looked around the mountain to find a way to the structure. Then, she found one. It was small gap that led into a small bowl like area filled with trees and grass. Eve ran forward into the bowl-like area. There was another gap that led along a cliff edge. Eve could just see the ocean and the beach from the cliff edge. Suddenly, a small figure lumbered out from behind the mountain into the area. Eve hid behind a tree and looked out. It was a Grunt on patrol. There were most likely to be more of them inside the structure. This was going to be tough.

Eve raised her battle rifle and aimed it at the Grunt. Once she killed the Grunt, she had to race inside the structure before the Covenant could call for reinforcements or lock themselves inside the structure. Eve tightened her finger on the trigger. Then, she fired.

The Grunt let out a loud yell as it flipped sideways onto the ground, dead. Eve got up and ran towards the cliff edge. When she reached it, she saw a large rectangle-like front section of the structure that had a large door on It's side. Apparently, Eve's theory of more Covenant showing up to investigate the gunshot was right. As soon as she reached the structure, another Grunt ran out. Eve fired a burst at the Grunt, killing it.

Eve ran inside the structure. She found herself in another large corridor with the same strange markings engraved on the floor and on the wall, at the end of the corridor, that's she's been seeing all over the ring. Eve ran down the corridor towards the wall at the end. Suddenly, she almost fell over when the last part of the corridor went into a slope. Eve managed to keep her footing and ran down the slope, turning left through a doorway into another corridor slope.

Eve found herself in a large hall-like room. There were four main pillars that went up to the ceiling. At the other end of the hall was a bulge-like wall that stuck out further than any of the other walls in the hall.

Suddenly, two minor Elites ran out from behind the wall. They spotted Eve and fired on her. Luckily, Eve jumped behind one of the pillars, narrowly avoiding a blast as she did.

"Looks like the security console is on the other side of that bulge," Auto said to Eve. "Now we just have to try and get rid of these Elites."

"Don't worry," Eve replied. "I've go an idea."

Eve waited until the barrage stopped. After a few seconds, it did. Then, heavy footfalls indicated that the Elites were running over to the pillar to check if they had killed Eve. However, when they reached the pillar, Eve was gone. The Elites scanned the room to find her, but she had just literally disappeared into thin air.

Then, one of the Elites fell to the floor, knocked out. The other Elite saw this and fired a burst round the room. He stopped after a few seconds and waited. BANG! A burst of ammo exploded in the room. The Elite slumped onto the floor, dead. Eve was standing several feet behind him. There had been an invisibility cloak near the pillar and she used it to deal with the Elites, but the gunfire had somehow shut down the invisibility cloak, making Eve visible again.

Eve ran towards the bulge and looked at It's side. There was an opening that led into a small corridor. At the end of that corridor were two panels sticking up from the floor. Between those panels was a holographic switch.

"That's it!" Auto exclaimed. "We've found it,"

"Now we can get to the cartographer," Eve replied.

Eve ran down the corridor towards the panels. When she reached them, she rested a hand on the holographic switch. At once, a whirring sound filled the air. Then, all went silent.

"I've scanned the island's security systems." Auto said. "Good work, they're offline. Now that door in the first structure should be open."

Eve nodded and ran back down the corridor into the hall. Suddenly, her ear radio crackled to life.

"_Mayday! Mayday! Drop ship Bravo 022 taking enemy fire! Repeat, we are under heavy fire and are losing altitude!"_

Eve could not believe what she was hearing. A drop ship was under attack and was most likely going to crash. Suddenly, Eve heard a loud explosion. She out of the hall, up the first slope corridor, down the next and skidded to a halt as she came outside. She looked down at the beach and gasped.

Pelican Bravo 022 had crashed onto the beach. The ship was a burning wreck. It's windows were smashed, the side wings had been completely ripped off and the rear thrusters were bent and broken. There was no way anyone was going to be alive after surviving a crash like that.

Eve sighed.

"We've lost more good men," she said.

"It's horrible," Auto replied. "But Eve, more good people will be lost if we don't hurry."

Eve nodded and ran back into the bowl-like area of the mountain and then back onto the platform. She ran across the platform and into the path that led through the mountain onto the beach. Eve was expecting to hear gunfire and explosions as she got nearer to the beach.

Wait, it was all quiet. Had the fight ended? Or had the warthog driven off and the Covenant decided to give chase.

Eve emerged from the path. She looked down near the edge of the trees and gasped. The warthog was still intact, but both soldier were lying dead on the ground. A Jackal, the survivor of the three that were left to fight the soldiers in the warthog, was standing over the body of the soldier who had been on the turret. It scratched It's chin and looked back up the path. And saw Eve.

The Jackal screeched and activated It's shield. It then fired a barrage of green blasts at Eve, who jumped behind a tree. The bark broke into little pieces as the blasts hit it. Eve loaded another clip into her battle rifle and fired out from behind the tree. The Jackal, who was firing at Eve and had It's shield at It's side, was hit in the chest and instantly killed.

Eve ran out from behind the tree over to the warthog. She felt sorry for the soldiers. She should have helped them kill the Jackals but she had go inside the structure to disable the island's security systems. Eve sighed and got into the warthog's driver's seat. She started the vehicle. The engine hummed. Then, the wheels screeched as Eve drove the warthog back towards the side of the island. She turned and drove back underneath the platform of the first structure. The warthog drove around the side of the hill path, did a 180 degree turn and drove up the hill path. When the warthog was on the platform, Eve stopped it and got out.

Eve ran inside the structure, down the corridor, turned right down the first slope corridor, left down the next and then left into the small hall. Eve breathed a sigh of relief when she got into the hall. The door was open. The way to the cartographer was clear.

Eve ran through the open doorway into the corridor, which led into another long one. Eve ran into the longer corridor and turned right. Suddenly, she skidded to a halt when she reached the end of the corridor.

Below her was some kind of massive shaft. It was huge! And it looked endless. It went so far down that Eve could actually see a mist far below her. After the mist, maybe there was the floor. Or maybe if you fell over the edge, you would fall forever and never stop. Just thinking about it made Eve shiver.

"I would not like to get lost down there," Auto said.

"Me neither," Eve replied. "Who knows how far that thing goes down,"

"That's one thing I would really prefer not to know," Auto said.

Eve nodded and looked around the shaft. They had gotten through the door but now they had to find the cartographer. Then, as Eve looked around the sides of the shaft, Eve's eyes rested on something. It was a long, thin platform, connected to the wall below the corridor, that had two doors, one at both ends. Below this platform was another platform with two doors, again one at both ends. These doors could have led to anywhere. Maybe, even the cartographer!"I know what your thinking Eve," Auto said. "It's crazy.""Well I'm not staying here," Eve replied.

Eve stepped back a few paces. She was going to jump across to the platform. This was suicidal. If she didn't jump far enough or she slipped, she would fall to her death and probably join any other dead that lay at the bottom, if any, of the shaft.

Eve closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She ran, then she jumped.

Eve felt herself fly through the air. She opened her eyes just in time to grab hold of the platform's ledge. The first step was complete, now Eve had to make sure she didn't lose her grip.

Using all her strength, Eve lifted herself onto the platform. She breathed a sigh of relief and stood up.

"Now which door do we go through?" Eve asked, looking at the one near her and then at the one at the other end of the platform.

"Both might go into the same room," Auto replied. "But the cartographer is below us so we need to find a way down onto the second platform."

Eve nodded and walked through the door she was near. She found herself in a large room. A walkway went through the middle of the room. The walls had some kind of weird light blue lights across them and there were several large pillars that ascended up to the ceiling. Behind these pillars were walkways, two more along the side of the room that seemed to disappear behind some walls that ascended from the room's floor up to the ceiling. There was one small slope path to get onto the room's side walkway on Eve's left, but Eve did not know if it would take her to the cartographer. It might just end up leading her back up onto the island's surface or into a trap. It was best not to take the risk.

Eve scanned the room to find another way out. She found a small door under the left walkway.

"There," she said. "I think we should go that way,"

"We don't know what's on the other side of that door," Auto protested.

"Well, we can't go up the side walkways," Eve told Auto. "I doubt they'll lead to the cartographer,"

Eve walked towards the door. It broke into four sections, in a diamond-like way, and disappeared into the wall. Eve leaned forward and looked through the doorway. There was a corridor in front of her that led into another room about thirty feet away. At least they knew this room was on the top platform. But were there any Covenant in there? Eve had to take the chance. The success or failure of the mission captain McCrea had set her and Auto depended on them finding the cartographer.

Eve took a deep breath and crept down the corridor. As she got closer, she could hear footsteps. No, heavy footsteps. It was obvious they were Elite. But how many of them were there? That was what scared Eve. After a few tense seconds, Eve reached the other end of the corridor. Slowly, she peeked her head out from behind the wall. This room was not much different from the room she had just left. It had walkways along the side and the big walkway went through the middle of the room, except that there was a ramp that led down to the floor about half-way down the walkway. Around the room were Covenant. An Elite was patrolling around the entrance. Also scattered around the room were several Grunts who were curled up into a ball fast asleep.

"If we kill the Elite, we can sneak through without waking the Grunts," Auto said.

"Don't worry," Eve whispered. "I got it,"

Eve crept forward out of the corridor towards the Elite, who was facing the opposite direction. It had a plasma rifle in It's right hand. If it spotted Eve, the Elite would use this weapon to kill her. After a few seconds of creeping, Eve stopped about three feet behind the Elite. She took out her battle rifle, brought it behind her and took a deep breath. Then, she swung it through the air into the Elite's back. The battle rifle broke the Elite's back. The Elite was sent head first onto the floor, dead.

"Now we can continue," Auto said.

Eve nodded and walked up the ramp onto the walkway. The walkway led into a small section where the walls of the two rooms joined together. After that was the first room then the walkway continued into another area which had walls on It's sides. Then, Eve realised that was on her left. Eve looked to her right and saw the walkway continue on into another room. Eve walked right into the next room. This room was, again, like the other two before this one, except there were no side walkways. There was a door on the left wall. Because there was no ramp, Eve jumped down from the walkway, which was only a distance of about fifteen feet. Eve walked towards the door. It opened to reveal a slope corridor leading down to some shiny silvery surface about thirty feet down. Eve walked down this slope corridor. When she reached the end of it, she found herself on some huge cube-like surface with more of the strange markings engraved into the floor. Eve then looked at the surroundings. She was back in the shaft, only this time about forty feet lower from the corridor's ledge and Eve was right under the second platform.

"Bad guy!" a high pitch voice squeaked.

Eve dived behind the walkway's wall, narrowly missing two blasts from a Grunt. Eve loaded another clip into her battle rifle, pointed her battle rifle out from behind the walkway wall and fired. The bullets ripped through the Grunt's chest armour, killing it.

Eve waited a few seconds in case any more Covenant would show up. Then, she, cautiously, stepped out from behind the walkway wall. The Grunt had spotted her from another huge cube-like surface that was against the wall and was connected to the cube surface she was on by a small ramp. Also on the other cube surface was an opening in the wall.

"I've detected strong energy signals coming from up ahead," Auto said. "The cartographer must be through that opening."

At that moment, gladness consumed Eve. They had found the cartographer! Now that they had found it, they could get to Halo's control centre! This was a great moment for Eve. It actually felt like their mission was finally worth doing instead of looking all over an island full of Covenant and end up losing marines for nothing.

Eve snapped out of her trance and ran forward towards the opening. When she reached it she looked inside. A small corridor led to a large circular room with another small corridor continuing onwards. In hat circular room was a thick glass surface around the middle, again in a circle, On the edge of the glass surface, in front of the corridor Eve was at, were two panels sticking up out of the floor. They had a holographic symbol hovering between them.

"There!" Auto exclaimed. "That's it! That's the cartographer!"

Eve ran forward towards the panels. When she reached them, she rested a hand on the symbol. A loud whirring sound filled the room. Then, the glass surface lit up. A hologram of Halo hovered up from the glass surface into the air. Above the panels. It then broke into several sections but it connected together again when it was in a full circle.

"Analyzing," Auto said. "Halo's control centre is located there," A section of the top of the ring flashed red. "The structure It's in appears to be some sort of temple or shrine ," Auto continued. "Interesting, a shrine is an unlikely place to put such a significant installation."

"Well, we know the location of the control centre now," Eve replied. "Now let's just get out of here,"

Suddenly, Eve's ear radio crackled to life.

"_Foe hammer to ground teams, you've got two enemy drop ships coming in fast!" _

"_Dammit! Okay, people, we go company. Engage enemy forces on sight!"_

_"It'll be easier to fight them off from inside the structure," _Auto said through his com. _"Can you get inside?" _

"_Negative! They're closing in too fast! Negative!" _

Gunfire and explosions erupted in the background. Screams of the dying were then heard. Then, Eve heard static com out from her radio.

"We'll be in a tight spot if we don't get out of here," Auto said.

Eve nodded. She was about to run when, suddenly, she was pinned to the floor. A fist then hit her in the side of the head, dazing her slightly. Although she was slightly dazed, Eve could see the red armour of a major Elite. Then, the Elite took out an energy sword and activated it. Eve gasped. It that was thrust into her, she would be dead.

Using all her strength, Eve managed to lift the Elite several inches up into the air. Then, she pushed it. The Elite tried to keep It's footing, but it fell over the edge of the shaft and disappeared into the mist.

Eve breathed a sigh of relief as she stood up. That was close.

Eve then ran back up the ramp onto the first cube-like surface. She then turned right back into the walkway and ran down it. If the right way had led her to the cartographer, the left would probably lead her out of the structure. Hopefully.

"_Auto to McCrea,"_ Auto said through his com.

A few seconds past but there was no response.

"_The captain has dropped out of range, Auto. His ship may be out of range or experiencing equipment problems." _

_"Keep trying, Foe hammer. Let me know when you have re-established contact, and tell him that Eve and I have determined the location of Halo's control centre. We'll be heading there as soon as we're topside."_

_"Affirmative, Foe hammer out," _

Just as Auto finished speaking, Eve reached the end of the walkway. There was a large hole around another walkway, that was connected to a wall and went around the side of the wall in a circular/hexagon-like way, in front of her. The first part of the walkway was a ramp, the next was in the shape of a hexagon's side and was flat and the last part of the walkway was a ramp that led up to the top of a huge cube-like section of the structure, that was also the walls of the first room she entered.

Eve ran up the walkway towards the cube's top. Suddenly, she came to a screeching halt. Covenant were also on top of this cube. Two Hunters, a minor Elite and God knows how many Grunts and Jackals. Eve could see a door on the left wall at the other end of the cube's surface. She had to reach it.

Suddenly, a projectile flew towards Eve, who yelped and dived out of the way. Eve took out her battle rifle and fired a burst at the Hunter's head. The Hunter growled and charged towards her, bringing back It's huge metal sword to crush Eve. Eve dived out of the way. The Hunter failed to stop and fell over the edge of the surface down into the hole.

The other Hunter growled and charged at Eve. It brought It's sword back and swung it at Eve, who ducked, just barely. The sword scrapped along the surface of the wall, only to come round and hit Eve in the back, sending her flying through the air and landing painfully onto the floor. Her battle rifle hit the wall at the other end of the cube's surface and broke in two.

The Hunter's footsteps shook the floor as it pounded towards Eve. It wanted revenge for It's fallen comrade. And all it would have to do is raise It's sword and bring it down and that would be the end of Eve. To make sure Eve did not move or run, a Grunt lumbered over and held onto her arms. But it had set It's weapon down near Eve's hand.

Big mistake.

Without warning, Eve grabbed the Grunts' arms, threw it up into the air and, when it was near enough, kicked it into a wall, killing it. She then grabbed It's plasma pistol and dived through the Hunter's legs just as it was about to strike. Eve then fired a barrage of blasts at the Hunter's back. After a few seconds, the Hunter let out a weak growl and slumped forward onto the ground, dead.

Eve then had to dive behind the Hunter's body because a barrage of blasts from the other Covenant soldiers were heading straight for her. The blasts fizzed away as they hit the Hunter's armour. Even though a Hunter's armour was virtually indestructible, it would not protect her for long. The rest of the Covenant would eventually drive her out from behind the body.

"What are going to do?" Auto asked. "If we don't hurry, those Covenant reinforcements will reach us and kill us."

"Don't worry," Eve replied. "I've got this under control."

Eve charged up a shot in her plasma pistol. She then quickly rose up, aimed and fired the shot before ducking behind the armour. The shot soared through the air and hit the minor Elite, disabling It's shield. Eve saw his and quickly rose up from behind the Hunter's body and fired a barrage at the Elite, killing it.

"Leader dead!" one of the Grunts screamed. "Run away!"

The Grunts immediately scattered in all directions. Because they were running everywhere, most of them were killed by the blasts from the Jackals. Eve saw her chance and fired a barrage at the Jackals' shields. The shields were quickly destroyed and the Jackals were killed.

"Leave the rest of the Grunts, just run," Auto said.

Eve got up and ran towards the door. It opened to reveal a large room. The room had a ramp that led up to a walkway that went along the room's walls. Pillars ascended from the floor up to the ceiling. In the middle of the room were several huge-cube like objects. There was also another door at the other end of the room.

The Covenant were in this room as well. What was worse, they had spotted Eve. A minor Elite, near one of the cube objects in the middle of the room, fired on Eve. Eve ran up the ramp onto the walkway and hid behind one of the pillars, narrowly missing a blue blast.

"I hope this is the way out," Eve said.

"It is," Auto replied. "But we won't be getting out if those Covenant reinforcements get here,"

Suddenly, a blast hit Eve's suit. Her holographic meter appeared. Eve looked down the walkway. The blast came from a Grunt. Eve fired three blasts from her plasma pistol, killing the Grunt.

"Wait, if you run along the walkway, you should be able to get to the door," Auto said to Eve.

"That's only if the Elite doesn't get there first," Eve replied.

Eve got up and ran round the walkway. The blasts hit the wall behind and in front of her. Eve was almost hit by one, if she did not jump to avoid it.

After a few moments of running, Eve reached the other end of the walkway, which was covered by a pillar. The door was on the wall below her. It was open to reveal several Covenant Jackals, who had their shields up to act as some kind of barricade.

"They've got their shields up," Eve said. "I can't get through them."

"Die bad guy!" a high pitched voice behind Eve squeaked.

Eve shot round to reveal a Grunt wielding a needler. The Grunt was about fire a barrage of the purple projectiles at Eve, but Eve was too quick for him. She fired two rounds from her plasma pistol at the Grunt. The blasts hit the Grunt in the head and chest, causing it to drop the needler. Eve fired two more blasts at the Grunt, killing it. To her surprise, a plasma grenade fell out of the Grunt's armour. Eve ran over to the Grunt, picked up the grenade and then ran back to the end of the walkway. She lit the grenade and threw it through the doorway.

BOOM! An explosion filled the air. Eve, who had crouched down and covered her ears, got up and looked down at the doorway. All the Jackals were lying dead on the floor.

The minor Elite was still alive and was trying to hit Eve with his weapon's blasts. Eve hid behind the pillar to avoid them.

"Leave him!" Auto exclaimed. "Just run!"

Eve jumped down from the walkway and ran as fast as she could through the doorway into the small room. The small room had cream coloured walls, again the markings were engraved on the surface of the floor and on the walls, and a silver coloured floor. There was a small circular hole in the floor up ahead. It had a light blue haze going up into another hole into the ceiling.

Eve did not know if she should at first. However, she quickly changed her mind when a blast from the minor's Elite's plasma rifle hit the wall just a few feet away from Eve. Eve ran forward into the haze. Almost immediately, Eve shot up through the hole in the ceiling. She found herself in a long dark tunnel going up and up and up. It seemed like it was never going to stop.

Finally, after a few seconds, Eve flew out of the hole and landed on a hard surface. She found herself in a long corridor with a smaller one going off to the right about half-way down it. At the other end of the corridor was a shaft. It was then Eve realised where they were.

"Alright," Auto said. "The gravity lift's disabled. That'll stop any Covenant from chasing us, for a while at least."

Eve smirked and ran down the corridor towards the smaller corridor. However, when she reached it, the zealot Elite, who had locked the door earlier, was standing there, glaring at Eve. In It's right hand was an energy sword.

Suddenly, The Elite swung the sword at Eve, who ducked, narrowly missing the sword. The sword got stuck in the wall. The Elite tried to pull the sword out of the wall, but stopped when Eve threw a punch at the Elite's head, causing it to hit the wall and was knocked out cold.

Eve then ran through the doorway, back into the small hall, up the first slope corridor, up the second and up the slope leading into the first corridor.

"_Auto to Echo 419," _Auto said through his com. _"Eve and I are topside. Requesting pickup on the double."_

_"Roger that Auto. Echo 419 inbound." _

Eve ran out onto the platform and looked up at the sky. Echo 419's pelican flew out flew out from behind the mountain. It stopped about fifty feet above the platform and slowly descended towards the platform's surface. When it was about ten feet from the platform, Eve climbed into the resting area. Not a second too soon. Literally, just as Eve climbed into the resting area, two major Elites, two minor Elites, fifteen Jackals and sixteen Grunts ran onto the top of the hill path, so that the platform was visible, and fired on the pelican. Echo 419 flew the pelican out to sea and then high into the air.

"Whew," Auto said. "That was close."

"_Good work locating Halo's control centre," _

"_Thanks, Foe hammer," _Auto replied. _"Here are the co-ordinates and a flight plan I've worked out," _

_"But, Auto. These co-ordinates are underground," _

Echo 419 flew her pelican above the platform structure in the middle of the island. As the pelican lowered towards the structure's platform, the platform broke into four doors and opened the four doors sliding into huge gaps under the ground. A huge dark tunnel lay below the pelican. Eve looked down at it and gulped. If Halo's control centre was down there, this could be the last time she will see the light of day again.

"_Why are we going down here then?" _

"_The Covenant did a thorough seismic scan," _Auto answered. _"My analysis shows that Halo is honeycombed with deep tunnels-which circle the whole ring." _

The pelican entered the tunnel. Like someone had flicked a switch, the light in the resting area disappeared immediately. It was so dark that Eve could only see as far as a few feet in front of her.

"_I hope your right about these tunnels, Auto. If we get stuck down there, I doubt we'll ever be getting out," _

"_Look on the bright side, Foe hammer," _Auto replied. _"The last thing the Covenant will be expecting is an aerial insertion… from underground," _

The Pelican disappeared into the tunnel. Then, the tunnel's doors moved out from the gaps underground and joined together, blocking out the last inch of daylight.


	20. Assault on the control room

Two hours later

Very little time had passed since Echo 419's pelican had entered Halo's tunnel system. But to Eve, the two mere hours had felt like an eternity. About half an hour after Echo 419 entered Halo's tunnel system, Eve fell asleep on the resting area's seats. She slept for well over an hour before Auto woke her up and told her that they were almost there.

Echo 419's pelican was flying up a massive shaft, bigger than the one Eve had entered back on the island. Far above them was a massive platform that was connected to the wall near the top of the shaft. On top of the shaft were several Covenant Grunts. Two of them were sleeping near a large diamond shaped door that looked like it was built for tall people only. The third was patrolling up and down the edge of the platform. Outside the door, both left and right of it, were two Covenant turrets. They were sitting there like two great beasts, waiting for their prey to come by.

The patrolling Grunt was about half-way down towards the left end. All of a sudden, he stopped. He could hear…engines? What the hell was that noise and where was it coming from?

Suddenly, the pelican rose into the Grunt's view. The Grunt jumped back, startled. It quickly realised what the pelican was and ran towards the door, squealing for his comrades to wake up and run.

"_This is as far as I can go," _

The pelican hovered in the air and began to turn so It's entrance was facing the platform. Eve just managed to catch a glimpse of the last Grunt running through the open doorway until the door closed.

"_Roger that,"_ Auto replied through his com. _"We'll be able to reach Halo's control centre from here,"_

Echo 419 hovered the pelican towards the platform's edge. When it was about ten feet from the platform, Eve jumped down from the resting area onto the platform. She was holding a battle rifle with a pistol in a side arm's pocket on her hip. There was a weapon's vest on her back, which was for her battle rifle.

"_Good luck, guys. Foe Hammer out," _

The pelican ascended away from the platform. When it was about thirty feet away, the pelican flew forward before heading back down the long tunnel, going in a circle as it descended back into the darkness. Within a few seconds, the pelican had disappeared back into the darkness far below the platform.

"We're on our own," Eve said.

Not for long. Before Eve was about to walk towards the door, it shot open. A minor Elite and the three Grunts ran out onto the platform and fired on Eve. Eve was hit several times. Her shield's meter appeared. The level in the red zone and flashing red. Suddenly, Eve took another hit from the Elite's plasma rifle. She staggered backwards and fell over the edge of the platform.

The Elite let out an evil laugh. It was going to be known as the one who killed Eve, who killed humanity's last hope for survival. Just to see It's fallen enemy, the Elite ran over to the edge of the platform. It looked over the edge of the platform.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed the Elite's chest and pulled it over the platform's edge. The Elite yelled as it fell down the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness below. Eve had grabbed hold of the bottom of the platform's edge. It was a perfect way to get rid of the Elite, now the Grunts were left but they would be a walkover.

Eve pulled herself back up onto the platform. The Grunts saw her and open fired. Eve quickly took out her battle rifle from her vest and fired at the Grunts. One of them yelled as it slipped backwards onto It's stomach, dead. Another Grunt quickly followed. The last Grunt screamed and ran towards the door. It opened and the Grunt ran through the doorway, disappearing behind the wall that led through to the door.

Eve ran over to the door. It opened for her, revealing a corridor with light blue walls, dark blue floors with the markings engraved in them and lights that seemed to shine from the walls themselves, which is why the whole corridor seemed to stay bright.

The corridor was only about fifty feet long before it turned right into another. Eve ran down to the end of the corridor she was in, hen turned right into the next corridor, then turned left into another long corridor that led to another large diamond shaped door, which was closing after the Grunt had run through it.

Eve ran towards the door. It opened as she got very close to it. Eve saw a large room ahead of her. It was in a circle/octagon like shape. There were several wide pillars along the room's walls. There was only about six feet space between them and the walls of a circular-like middle part of the room. Inside the circular walls was a massive cube shaped object hanging from the ceiling. It had four large opening's on all of It's sides. Directly below it was another cube-shaped object that was between two small walkways going across a massive trench below the cube shaped object. There were two massive gaps in the circular wall. One near the door Eve was at and one directly in front of another large diamond-shaped door at the other end of the room.

Eve walked forward into the large room. She gazed wide-eyed around it. She had never seen anything like this. It seemed to be that the closer she and Auto go to Halo's control centre, the more the structures would look eye-boggling. Who, or what built these structures, let along, the ring?

Eve suddenly dived forward into the middle part of the room. Two blasts had just missed her and hit the floor. As Eve stood back up, she saw three minor Grunts run into the middle section of the room through the entrance on the other side of the room. All three were armed with needlers. Eve raised her battle rifle and fired a burst at one of the Grunts as it was about to run across one of the small walkways. The Grunt was hit and fell over the walkway's edge into the trench. One of the two remaining Grunts fired a projectile from his needler at Eve, who dived forward, narrowly missing the projectile. Eve then fired a burst at the Grunt, instantly killing it with a hit to the head.

"Die bad guy!" a high pitched voice squeaked.

Eve looked to her right. The last Grunt, who had run across the other walkway, had lit a plasma grenade. Suddenly, he threw it at Eve, who whacked it away using her battle rifle. Unfortunately, the grenade landed on an Elite's head. The Elite yelled and tried to pull the grenade off his head, but to no avail.

BOOM! The grenade exploded. The Elite had been killed in the explosion. The Grunt who had thrown the grenade screamed and ran back across the walkway towards the other opening, disappearing around the side of the wall. Eve ran towards the other opening into the outer part of the room. Just as she emerged from the middle section of the room, the diamond shaped door opened up, revealing another corridor with the exact same wall colours and bright lights than the last corridor. However, there were also Covenant in the corridor, made up of four Grunts and two Jackals.

The Jackals fired on Eve, who took cover behind the wall on the inside part of the room's middle section. The green blasts hit the wall and fizzed away as if they were eating through the wall. After a few seconds, the barrage stopped. Then, Eve heard light footfalls grow slowly louder. 

_I've got you _Eve thought as she quickly loaded another clip into her battle rifle.

The Grunt and Jackal squad were now only ten feet from Eve. They could finally kill her and end her nuisance to the Covenant and their mission to Halo's control centre.

Suddenly, a barrage of bullets hit the Covenant squad. Light blue blood and purple blood leaked out of the wounds in the squad members' chests, stomachs and heads. Within a few seconds, the Covenant squad was lying on the floor, dead.

Eve ran out towards the diamond shaped door. It opened up, revealing the corridor to Eve again. The corridor was about twenty metres long until it turned left into another corridor. Eve ran down the corridor, turned left into the next and then right into the third. Eve suddenly screeched to a halt. A Jackal had ran out from a right turning at the other and spotted her. Before it could activate It's shield, Eve fired a burst of ammo from her battle rifle at the Jackal, killing it.

Eve ran on towards the end of the corridor. She turned right, jumping over the dead Jackals' body, into the next corridor then left into a small corridor that led to another diamond shaped door. Eve walked down the corridor towards the door.

"This is not what I expected," Auto said.

"What?" Eve asked.

"The Covenant," Auto replied. "Their presence here is stronger than I anticipated. They seem to have the entire region secure,"

"By the looks of the Covenant we've faced so far, we must be far away from the control centre," Eve said to Auto. "If we were near it now, they would like a ton of troops guarding this place."

"That's something I'm not looking forward to," Auto replied.

Eve smirked and walked towards the door. It opened. Eve gasped.

There was no corridor or room behind this door. This time, it was a bridge with several glass windows along the bottom of the bridge. There were also a few huge blockades on the bridge. What was shocking about this was that it was outside! And it was snowing. The diamond shaped door led into a cliff that stretched so high that it just disappeared through the sunlight that managed to break through the thick snow storm and light up the area. There was another diamond shaped door at the other end of the bridge, which also led into another massive cliff.

"Interesting," Auto said. "The weather patterns here seem natural, not artificial. I wonder if the ring's environment systems are malfunctioning…or if the designer's wanted the installation to have inclement weather,"

"Either way, this ring's weather is not really that much different from Earth's," Eve replied.

"Well, no," Auto said. "In a way, it kind of makes you feel like your back on Earth doesn't it,"

Suddenly, Eve's ear radio crackled to life.

"_This is Fire Team Zulu requesting immediate assistance from any UNSC forces. Does anyone copy, over?"_

Eve heard the noise of an engine. Immediately, she recognized what noise it was. It was a pelican. She was right. A Pelican flew down from the sunlight and went below the bridge. Eve ran out of the corridor onto the bridge and looked over the edge. The pelican was slowly hovering down towards a snow and ice covered ground far below, looking like a mile below from Eve's perspective. There were several tall trees and a large boulder scattered on the ground below. Eve instantly knew that the Covenant would be down there and would fire on the marines as soon as they were on the ground.

"I did not think any UNSC forces were left on this part of the ring," Auto said. _"Auto to Fire Team Zulu, I read you." _Auto said through his com. _"Fire Team Zulu, hold position. We're on our way,"_

_"Roger that. Make it quick," _

Eve watched as the pelican hovered in the same place for several moments. Then, it slowly rose into the air and flew in the direction of a massive pass between the cliffs, from the direction of the left side of the bridge. It flew through the pass and disappeared behind the cliff.

"We better hurry," Eve said. "Fire Team Zulu won't last long down there on their own."

Eve ran down the bridge, only to screech to a halt and jump behind a blockade about fifty feet from the door she came through onto the bridge. There were four Covenant Grunts and a minor Elite further up ahead, guarding the bridge. One of the Grunts was standing on a thick glass window on the bridge's floor. It was directly above the bottom of a ramp that led from two other ramps that led down from the bridge's top level. There were several of these along both sides of the bridge. The lower level was another bridge connected to the top level by some pillars. On the lower level were several Grunts, that were sleeping next to the pillars' sides, and a patrolling major Elite.

Eve peeked her head out from behind the blockade and looked down the bridge at the Covenant in front of her. They had no idea she was there. The Grunts, in fact, just looked like they were too tired or too bored to even bother about fighting any enemies that might come their way.

"We need to get through them." Eve whispered to Auto. "If we don't, Fire Team Zulu will be dead."

"Do you have a plan?" Auto asked.

Eve looked around the bridge. The Elite was standing on one of the glass windows which led to the lower level of the bridge.

"I've go an idea," Eve whispered.

Before Auto could ask Eve what it was, Eve took out her battle rifle and fired at the glass. A loud shattering sound filled the air. The Elite was taken completely by surprise and fell through the hole to the lower level below. A loud crunching noise, loud to Eve, then came out of the hole. Eve then fired a barrage at the Grunts, who had not been able to flee in time, killing them.

Eve got up and ran down the bridge towards another blockade. Suddenly, her foot slammed down on one of the floor glass windows. It smashed. Eve screamed as she fell through to the second level, landing painfully on her side.

Eve groaned as she got up, only to dive behind a pillar as a blue blast hit the floor where she had been standing just a mere second before. Eve loaded another clip into her battle rifle. She was about to fire at the Elite when she heard something was behind her. Eve looked behind her and saw a Grunt stirring from It's sleep. The Grunt lifted It's head and looked up at Eve.

"AHHHH!" the Grunt screamed.

The Grunt jumped back away from Eve. Unfortunately, the Grunt fell over the edge of the lower bridge and fell down towards the ground.

Eve gulped as she looked over the edge of the bridge. If she fell over the edge, she would be dead in a few seconds. Just thinking about it made Eve shiver.

Suddenly, the Elite ran up behind Eve and launched at her side. Eve yelled in pain as the force of the blow sent her over the edge of the lower bridge. The Elite laughed as Eve disappeared. Finally, she was gone. The Elite walked back up the lower bridge to head to the top bridge and report the death of Eve.

BANG! A burst of ammo exploded in the air. The major Elite was hit in the head and fell forward onto the bridge's floor, dead. Several feet behind him, Eve stood with her battle rifle. When the Elite had kicked her over the edge of the bridge, he had not noticed her grab hold of a loose scaffold underneath the bridge, which Eve used to quickly pulled herself back onto the bridge.

Eve ran up a nearby ramp onto the platform, then up the second ramp that led back onto the top bridge. She was now half-way down the bridge, near another blockade. Eve looked left down towards the other end of the bridge. There was a Jackal with It's gun raised and shields activated. It was looking around the bridge, realising that there was an enemy somewhere on it. Eve crouched low and raised her battle rifle slightly. Then, she pulled the weapon's trigger.

The Jackal let out a loud screech as it was hit in the chest and stomach. The Jackal fell to the floor dead. However, another Jackal ran out from behind a blockade several feet further up the bridge from the first Jackal. It activated It's shield and fired on Eve, who took cover underneath the bridge.

"You have any ideas?" Auto asked Eve.

"Yeah, don't worry," Eve replied.

Eve ran down the lower bridge level towards where the Jackal was. The Jackal was still firing at the ramp where Eve had hidden behind, believing she was still there. Eve stopped underneath the glass the Jackal was standing on. She aimed her battle rifle at the glass and fired a burst of ammo at it.

The glass shattered, taking the Jackal completely by surprise. The Jackal fell onto the lower bridge. It groaned as it got up, only to receive a powerful and painful whack round the head by Eve's battle rifle. The Jackal fell to the floor, knocked out cold.

Eve ran up a nearby stairwell onto the top bridge. She ran past the blockade, which the Jackal had run out from behind, up towards a large blockade acting as some kind of shield in front of the door. As Eve got closer, she saw the top of the door, which rose higher than the blockade, open up. Suddenly, a zealot Elite, armed with an energy sword jumped over the blockade and landed a few feet in front of Eve. Then, before Eve could react, it threw It's sword at her. Eve, luckily, managed to dodge the sword. She then fired two bursts of ammo at the Elite, destroying It's shield and killing it with a hit to the head.

"They're forces are getting stronger," Auto said as Eve ran through the doorway into the corridor behind the door. "We must be close to something important,"

"Maybe the way down to the ground," Eve suggested.

"What makes you think that?" Auto asked her.

"Well, there are UNSC troops far below us," Eve replied.

"I don't think the Covenant are guarding a way down," Auto said.

Eve rolled her eyes and ran right into another corridor, then left into a long corridor that led to another diamond shaped door. Eve ran up to the door. It opened to reveal another room circular/hexagon shaped room with circular walls to stand as a middle section. However, this time there was no trench in the middle section, it just floor with large cube shaped objects and another large object hanging above a cube shaped object in the middle of the room. There were also several large square opening on the walls that led to some walkways that were only about two metres off the ground.

Eve stepped into the room. A Grunt in one of the openings on the middle section's right wall saw her through the opening and fired on her. Eve dived forward and ducked behind the opening's wall, narrowly missing one of the blasts from the Grunt's plasma pistol. Eve peeked her head out from behind the wall, only to duck behind the wall to avoid another blast, but she managed to spot a minor Elite near the object in the middle of the room and two more Grunts in the opening's on the middle rooms' right walls.

"Go around," Auto said. "If your quick, you might be able to flank them,"

Eve nodded and ran round the middle section's walls. She ran underneath the first walkway, past one of the pillars, then under a second walkway and past another pillar. Finally, she came to a stop outside a small corridor. This corridor was a slop and it had a lower ceiling that was almost at Eve's height. The walls were an orange/peach colour and were shining like the walls in the corridor.

A loud screech made Eve jump. A Jackal, behind her near the middle section's other opening, had had the same idea as Auto. It activated It's shield and fired at Eve. The blasts hit Eve's shield. Her holographic mater shone up from her wrist, flashing red as the meter was near the bottom of the yellow zone. Eve jumped into the corridor, missing another blast and ran down the rest of the slope into another room.

The room was like a small hall. About ten metres in length and about four in width. It had shining blue walls and a silver floor with markings engraved into it. In the middle of the room was a strange ramp that was about seven feet high. At the other end of the hall was a small hexagon shaped door with green lights on it.

Eve heard the Jackal screech again, only this time heavy and light footfalls were heard afterwards. The Covenant were following her down here. She had to find somewhere to hide. She could not run down through the door. She did not know if it led to anymore Covenant or to a dead end. The only place left to hide was the ramp. Eve dived behind it and crouched down. Her breath grew more quiet as if she was slowly dying. Which might happen if the Covenant find her down here.

Then, Eve had an idea. If she was going to find out where this corridor led to without any worry, she had to get rid of the Covenant. Eve moved her foot towards the door. It opened up, believing someone was trying to go through it. It worked! Just as the door opened, the Elite, the Jackal and three Grunts, who had jumped down from the openings onto the floor in the middle section of the last room, ran into the hall. They spotted the door closing and ran round the ramp through the open doorway, completely oblivious that they had just passed their enemy. Big mistake.

As the last Grunt ran into the corridor, Eve stood up, took out her battle rifle and fired a barrage down the corridor after the Covenant squad. The Covenant were taken completely by surprise and were killed in a matter of seconds.

"Now let's see where this corridor leads to," Eve said.

Eve ran down the corridor, over the dead bodies of the Covenant, and turned left down a smaller corridor that led to another hexagon shaped door. It opened as Eve approached it. Eve saw a circular shaped platform on the floor in front of her. She stepped forward onto the platform and looked up. The walls, which were shining a blue colour like those from the corridors, led up to a curved ceiling.

"Okay, now what do we do?" Eve asked.

"I don't know," Auto replied. "This doesn't look like the way down to the ground floor."

"It has to be," Eve said. "Whoever built this place would not just leave it like this,"

"What about that control panel," Auto said.

Eve looked around her and saw two panels sticking up from the floor surrounding the platform. They were showing a holographic switch between them. Eve walked over to the panel and rested a hand on the switch.

Immediately, Eve almost fell onto the platform's floor as it suddenly jolted. Then it began to descend down through a long tunnel. That's what this big room was. A tunnel. So they were on an elevator. Eve looked back up at the ceiling. It was far away now. It was quite hard to imagine the technology that had been built into this place could work this quick. It felt like there was something more to this ring than meets the eye.

The platform jolted again as it slowed down. Then, it stopped outside another hexagon shaped door. Eve stepped towards the door. It opened to reveal another corridor in front of her.

"We're on the ground floor," Auto said. "Now we just have to try and find a way through the mountain to Fire Team Zulu."

Eve nodded and ran down the corridor and turned right into another corridor towards another hexagon shaped door. It opened as Eve approached it. Eve found herself in another small hall that was the exact spitting of the hall she was in just several minutes earlier. Another hexagon shaped door was on the other side of the room. Eve walked towards the door. Again, like the other door, it opened as Eve got close to it. The door opened to reveal a long and wide corridor with several blockades on their sides across It's walls. At the other end of the corridor were the walls of the room's middle section. This room was a lot more different than the other two Eve had gone through. Except for one thing. Covenant were in this room as well.

Scattered behind the blockades and along the wall that led from the door to the main wall with the blockades were several Grunts. They were all curled up into balls, fast asleep.

_Great! _Eve thought. _We get into another room and It's crawling with sleeping Grunts!_

Eve crept forward as quietly as she could. She knew that if even one of the Grunts woke up and saw her, it would alert the rest of the Grunts and any other Covenant in the room. She had to be as quiet as possible.

Half-way down the corridor. Good, just another few metres to go.

Now just a few more feet. Almost there.

Yes! Eve made it to the other end. The rest of this room was pretty much the same as the other two rooms, except that it was slightly bigger and there were no objects in the middle section's floor or ceiling, except for a few ramps. Eve could see all this through a long thin piece of glass that was on the wall.

Eve crept around the wall of the middle section. They were a really tense few moments. More windows had been built into the walls. Eve looked through them and saw several Jackals and Grunts patrolling or sleeping around the middle section. Eve had to duck several times when a Jackal would look in her direction. They had not spotted her yet, but could do soon.

Now came the hard part. Eve came to a corner of an opening that led into the middle section of the room. What was worse, there was a minor Elite patrolling in front of the opening. If he saw Eve, he would alert the rest of the Covenant in the room of her presence and she would most likely be dead. If she was going to sneak out of this room, she had to kill the Elite, but then run because it would not be long before one of the Covenant discovered the body of their fallen comrade.

Breathing in, Eve crept forward slightly. The Elite was walking in the other direction. It was to walk a few feet from the opening before turning to do the same on the other end of the opening. The only thing Eve would be able to do is run across the opening and then kill the Elite. It was going to be suicidal, but it was probably the only way of getting out of this room, maybe apart from shooting up the breathed in and ran.

Eve's nerves were panic-stricken. This was suicidal! If she was spotted she would be dead. Part of her wanted to run back and wait for the Elite. No. She could not turn back now or she would be exposed. It was either continue running and hopefully get out of the room or turn back and risk ending getting killed. Just as few more feet. _Four…Three…Two…One. _Yes! Eve made it. Luckily, the Elite had not heard her but it was almost complete with this patrol walk. Eve had just a few seconds before it was going to turn round and see her. Eve crept forward and, in the blink of an eye, threw an arm around the Elite's neck.

The Elite gasped and tried to break free of Eve's grip, but it did not work. Eve only tightened her arm's grip on the Elite's neck. The Elite's breaths were slowly getting shorter. It fell to It's knees, still trying to get Eve's arm off his neck for air. Still it did not work. Finally, the Elite's breath stopped. Eve pulled her arm out from in front of It's neck. The Elite fell forward onto the floor, dead.

"Lets get out of here," Auto said. "They'll discover his body soon,"

Eve nodded and ran around the walls of the middle section. Finally, she came to another diamond shaped door. Eve breathed a sigh of relief and walked through the door as it opened. "I'm glad we're out of there," she said.

"Me too," Auto replied. "But we're still quite a way from the control centre. Those rooms may be the first of many,"

"Lets hope they are not filled with Covenant." Eve said as she turned right into the next corridor.

Eve walked to the end of this corridor and turned left into another long corridor. At the end was another diamond shaped door. Eve walked to the end of this corridor. The door opened as she approached it. Eve walked through it.

"Whoa," She whispered.

Eve was outside in the snow. The level of snow was only about one foot deep, but even through her bodysuit Eve could actually feel some of the cold on her body. Eve shivered and looked around the new landscape she was in. She looked up and saw the bridge she had crossed hundreds of feet above. She had come out of the mountain that was on the right end of the bridge. This mountain, along with the mountain at the left end of the bridge, made some sort of pass that led into some large space several hundred feet to Eve's right.

"Whoa," Auto said. "Whoever made this ring must have really worked hard on it,"

"Yeah," Eve replied. "Wait."

Suddenly, she just realised something.

"Fire Team Zulu!" she exclaimed. "Where are they?!"

A nearby blast of a turret caught her attention. A grunt was sitting on a turret and was firing a barrage of purple blasts at a squad of marines taking cover behind an overturned warthog and some small boulders. Further ahead from the marines was a large boulder and some trees. On the boulder was another turret that was firing on them. Around the boulder were several small objects that seemed to float and move around when an Elite got into one of them. They were too far away for Eve too see clearly. One was already floating around the area, firing blue blasts, much like those from a plasma rifle, at Fire Team Zulu.

"C'mon, we have to help them!" Auto exclaimed.

Eve nodded and ran towards the battle. As she got closer, she took out her battle rifle and fired a burst of ammo at the Elite in the floating small object. The Elite growled and turned the object round to face Eve. Eve gulped. She had seen this object before. When she lead the rescue mission on the Truth and Reconciliation, there were several of these scattered in the docking bay and around the room from where the squad entered the ship.

The object looked like some kind of a monster that was preparing to attack. It had a large middle section shaped like a seat, then there was the seat several near the back of the vehicle with a small bulge at the end as support for the seat. On the sides of the vehicle, at the front, were two pelican-like wing shaped sections that held out a plasma cannon each on them. They also must have been the engines because a blue haze was just visible coming out from the back of the wing sections. The entire vehicle was about twelve feet long and was a purple colour. It was usually called the Type 32 Rapid Assault Vehicle. But the UNSC soldiers gave it a new name. The Ghost. This was because it was mainly used for infantry support, scout and reconnaissance and it could quickly move from one place of the battlefield to another in the blink of an eye.

The Elite laughed and fired two shots from the Ghost as Eve. Eve yelped and dived out of the way. She got up and ran over to Fire Team Zulu. The Ghost made a loud whirring sound when it floated about the battlefield. The whirring sound was getting louder because the Ghost was chasing her. Eve panicked and tried to run faster, but her legs would not allow her to go any faster. Eve could surely make it to Fire Team Zulu. She was only a few metres away, but the Ghost was closer and would kill her as soon as it reached her.

Eve panicked and dived forward. She jumped behind a boulder. That was lucky. What was also lucky was that the Ghost crashed into the boulder without bone breaking force. It was enough to throw the Elite out of It's seat in the Ghost onto the freezing snow covered ground. Eve fired two bursts from her battle rifle at the Elite, killing it.

"Glad you could join us, Eve," a sergeant taking cover behind the overturned warthog said. "We thought we would be toast if you didn't show up.""How many of you are there?" Eve asked the sergeant.

"Just me and private Fisher and lieutenant Ackerson are by some boulders on the other side of this warthog," the sergeant replied. "Harris and Robinson got killed shortly after we landed. Luckily, we have a rocket launcher but It's not gonna be much use to us,"

Suddenly, a massive blue haze flew out from behind a small hill and exploded just a few metres behind the squad. Then, something big floated out from behind the hill towards the squad.

It had a large middle section, that was also shaped like a seat like the Ghost, with two small pincer shaped sections coming off the front of the object. At the top of the big middle section was a smaller hole that led deep into the object. Behind the hole was a large object, shaped like the front of the plasma rifle, that stuck up into the air. Two more small pincer shaped objects, that were only half the size of the ones at the front, stuck out from the back of the main middle section. They must have also been the engines, along with the ones at the front, because a blue haze was again visible from the backs of these parts of the object. The vehicle was a dark purple colour and was about twenty eight feet long. The vehicle was usually called the Type 25 Assault Gun Carriage. The UNSC called it the Wraith.

The Wraith stopped on the top of the small hill and fired another massive plasma mortar from the plasma rifle-like weapon that stuck out from the top of the vehicle. Eve and the sergeant jumped out of the way. The mortar hit the ground near the warthog and exploded, throwing it high into the air. The warthog landed on It's side, narrowly missing one of the soldiers hiding behind a boulder.

"We need to destroy that thing!" the sergeant hissed as he and Eve hid behind a boulder.

Eve looked around the battlefield for something that could destroy that Covenant tank. She saw it lying on the ground. The rocket launcher!Eve got up and ran over to the rocket launcher. The sergeant called after her but she did not listen. She had to get that rocket launcher and destroy the tank before it tore the rest of the squad to pieces.

Eve reached the rocket launcher and grabbed it. She aimed it up at the Wraith.

"Your suicidal sometimes," Auto said.

"Sometimes you have to be suicidal to live," Eve replied.

Eve almost fell backwards as the rocket fired a shot at the Wraith. The Wraith shook slightly as it was hit. Then, it turned to face Eve and fired another mortar blast at her. Eve ran backwards several feet, missing the blast radius of the mortar. She then fired another shot from the rocket at the Wraith.

BOOM! The entire Wraith seemed to explode as the rocket hit It's armour. The body of an Elite flew out from the Wraith onto the ground.

"Nice work, Eve!" the sergeant shouted to her.

"RUN AWAY!" a Grunt near the massive boulder screamed.

Two Grunts and a Jackal ran out from behind smaller boulders in front of the big boulder towards the pass entrance. Eve could see another hill in front of the pass. If they were running in that direction, there was most likely to be Covenant over there as well.

"C'mon, we have to follow them," Eve shouted to the three soldiers.

Eve ran over to the warthog and, with all her might, pushed it back onto It's wheels. The sergeant and the private got into the warthog, the sergeant in the passenger seat and the private on the turret, whilst the lieutenant got into the Ghost. Eve started the warthog. The engine hummed. She drove the warthog towards the pass; the Ghost followed. As the warthog and the Ghost approached the pass, the warthog turret chattered with gunfire. The two Grunts and the Jackal were hit and fell to the snow covered ground, dead.

The warthog and the Ghost reached the hill. Suddenly, a barrage of blasts flew at the warthog. The sergeant fired a barrage from MA5B assault rifle at the Covenant, who were Elites and Jackals. One of the Jackals was hit and fell to the ground, dead. Suddenly, a blue blast struck the sergeant in the chest, causing him to fall out of the warthog onto the ground.

"Sarge!" Eve exclaimed.

The Ghost and warthog's machine gun chattered with gunfire at the Covenant, killing the Elite and remaining two Jackals. Eve got out of the warthog's driver's seat and ran up to the sergeant's body. The snow around his body was starting to turn a scarlet colour. Eve put two fingers on his pulse. He was dead.

"We have to keep moving," Eve said, resting the sergeant's body on the ground.

Eve got back into the warthog's driver's seat, started the engine and drove around the small hill towards the pass; the Ghost followed. When the two vehicles reached the pass, they stopped suddenly. The pass entrance was actually a drop about ten feet.

BANG! A loud explosion shook the area. The three in the two vehicles looked down the area the pass led to, which was a canyon, and saw a shocking sight.

The area was mostly a frozen lake with some high piles of snow, to act as small hills, filled with boulders. Up against the wall of the mountain on the other side of the canyon was a crashed pelican. The same that dropped off Fire Team Zulu earlier on. In the middle of the small lake was a massive tank. Luckily, it was UNSC, not Covenant.

The tank had a massive rectangle/square like base with several metal bars for soldiers to hold onto. Near the back of the tank was a massive sphere-like object that went up into a massive cannon. Next to that cannon was a small machine gun with the power of battle rifles, assault rifles and even rocket launchers inside it. This tank was called M808B Main Battle Tank. The soldiers called it the Scorpion tank. Not that it was fast or silent like a scorpion, but it was just as deadly with It's cannon and machine gun.

Around the tank were several marines firing at the boulders, where two Elites and two squads of Grunts and Jackals were firing on them. At the pelican's crash site, four marines were lying dead in the snow. Broken weapons and a destroyed warthog's remains were littered around the pelican's crash site. It looked like some natural disaster had swept through the area and the survivors were fighting over who was to lead them.

"We have to help them," Eve said.

"What about the warthog and the Ghost?" the soldier on the warthog's turret asked.

"Leave the Ghost." Eve replied. "Let's see if we can get this warthog down into this canyon."

Eve drove the warthog forward slightly. The two in the warthog jolted as it fell forward from the top of the drop onto the thick ice. Luckily, the ice was thick enough to sustain the weight of the warthog. The soldier in the ghost got out of the vehicle and jumped down onto the ice. He got into the warthog's passenger seat and fired on the Covenant as Eve drove the warthog towards their enemies.

"Eve's here! We're saved!" one of the soldiers around the tank exclaimed as the warthog drove past him.

"Yeah, time to kick ass!" another soldier near the tank shouted.

The soldier on the warthog's turret fired a barrage at the Covenant. One of the Elites was hit repeatedly until it crumpled to the snow, dead. Two Jackals tried to use their shields to protect themselves from the warthog's machine gun. Unfortunately, the shields were no match against the bullets and they were destroyed. Both of the Jackals were hit in the head, chest, stomach, arms and legs. They crumpled to the ground, dead. Two Grunts tried to flee but the soldier in the passenger seat fired on them, killing them both.

After a few minutes of battling, the Covenant squad was completely destroyed. The sergeant of the soldiers around the tank ran up to Eve as she got out of the warthog.

"Thanks for the help, Eve," he said. "I didn't think we were going to last much longer."

"That's okay," Eve replied. "We need to find a way out of this area. More Covenant will most likely be heading straight for us,"

"The only ways out of here are through that massive cave…" the sergeant said, pointing up to a massive cave that was dug into the side of the mountain. It had huge boulders inside it and was lit by some strange green lights from some small missile shaped lights. "Or the small pass over there," the sergeant said, pointing over to a small pass between the two mountains that made up the canyon.

"_Either way, they could lead us right into the Covenant," _Auto said through his com.

"Yeah, but we can't go back the way we came," Eve replied. "It's best if we go on. By the looks of it, the Covenant presence will get stronger as we get closer to the control centre."

Eve ran over to the scorpion tank and got in. She closed the seat's hatch. In front of her was a small opening that allowed Eve to see out in front of her. Also In front of her were a variety of controls for moving the tank and firing and moving It's weapons. A holographic overview of the tank appeared in front of her from a control switch. It showed the marines getting on the sides of the tank. There was enough space near the metal bars for eight marines altogether on the tank's four sides. Once the seven marines, five were from the squad around the tank, were on the tank, Eve drove it forward.

The scorpion tank was quite slow, but faster than most tanks humanity had produced in the pass. It was slow mainly because of It's armour, which was only just thick enough to withstand the force from the Wraith's plasma mortar.

As Eve drove the tank towards the two paths through, and around, the mountain, a ghost hovered out from behind the cave walls inside the cave. Eve saw it coming and turned the tank's cannon to aim at the incoming enemy vehicle. BOOM! The tank shook as a shot was fired from the cannon at the ghost. The ghost exploded into a fireball, but was quickly put out by the snow on the ground. The Elite riding it was completely obliterated.

"One down, a million to go," one of the soldiers on the side of the tank said.

Eve drove the tank towards the pass. She as worried that the boulders would prevent the tank from advancing through the cave. As she drove the tank down the pass, a massive open area was starting to become visible. After a few seconds, the tank drove out of the pass into the open area.

The open area was like a massive pit with the mountains rising so high that you could not see the top of them. At the other end of the open area was a massive cliff that stuck out about sixty feet from the mountain. The reason the cliff was there was because there was a massive tunnel entrance built into the cliff. The tunnel entrance was much like the one Eve had driven through when rescuing the marines when the remains of the _Axiom's _crew landed on Halo.

Around the open area in front of the tunnel entrance were several tall trees and boulders. One massive hill/boulder was in front of the cave's exit. On top of the hill/boulder was a Covenant turret. The Covenant around this area must have known they were coming because as soon as the scorpion came out of the pass into the open area, the turret fired on them.

"Contact, contact! Covenant mortar tanks are moving in!" one of the soldiers on the side of the tank shouted.

The soldier was right. Out from behind the top of the cliff a wraith appeared and fired a mortar blast down at the scorpion tank. Another wraith appeared from behind the hill/boulder and fired a mortar at the scorpion tank.

Eve drove the tank backwards, narrowly missing both mortars as they exploded on the ground where the tank had just been. Eve then aimed the tank's cannon at the nearest wraith. The tank shook as a shot flew out at the target.

BOOM! The wraith exploded into a fireball. The Elite driving it flew out of the tank's drivers seat onto the ground, dead. She then fired a barrage from the tank's machine gun at the Grunt on the turret, killing it.

"Looks like that armour wasn't so tough after all!" one of the soldiers exclaimed happily. "Let's mop up the rest of 'em!"

A pair of ghosts flew out from the cave and headed straight towards the scorpion tank. The soldiers on the right side of the tank fired on the ghosts, killing the Elite from one of them. The other ghost, however, fired a barrage at the tank, hitting and killing one of the soldiers. Then, the tank's cannon aimed at the ghost and fired. The ghost exploded into a fireball, killing the Elite.

"Alright, let's move into the tunnel," the sergeant ordered.

Eve drove the tank towards the tunnel. As the tank got closer to the massive tunnel entrance, the cannon aimed up at the wraith on the cliff and fired another shot. The wraith exploded into a fireball.

The tank entered the tunnel. It had the same coloured walls and floors as the first tunnel Eve went through on the ring with the markings engraved into it. However, most of the floor, until near the bottom of the tunnel, was covered with about one to two feet of snow. At the end of the tunnel were two Hunters. They spotted the tank heading towards them and fired two projectiles at the tank. One hit the front of the tank, the other hit the top of the cannon. Eve fired a shot down at the Hunters, hitting the ground between both of the massive creatures and killing them.

When the tank reached the bottom of the tunnel, Eve stopped it. She opened the hatch and looked around the tunnel. In front of them was a massive door that looked absolutely impenetrable. As Eve jumped down from the tank onto the ground, she saw a control panel with a holographic switch on the other side of the tunnel. She walked over to it and rested her hand on the holographic switch.

The sound of moving metal filled the room. The door broke into four squares and disappeared into the walls. Ahead of the squad was another massive corridor with a right turning that led into the unknown.

"Keep your guard up," the sergeant ordered as Eve got back into the tank. "We don't know what we'll be facing down here,"

"Hopefully not a lot of Covenant," Auto mumbled.

Eve drove the tank through the doorway down the corridor. The walls were light blue like in the corridor Eve had fought her way through when back inside the mountain structures. As the tank neared the end of the corridor, Eve turned it right so it could fit down the turning. It did and the tank rolled onwards. It felt like a colony of travellers who had landed somewhere they had never seen before and were determined to explore this land and learn about it.

The tank turned left into another long corridor. Another turning led right. When the scorpion tank reached the end of this long corridor and turned right, the crew gasped.

In front of them was a massive chasm. Not as big as the first one Eve encountered, but it was huge. The floors and walls were dark blue, there was a bridge that stretched across from the side the tank was on to the other side about one hundred feet away and there were several big cube shaped objects scattered across both sides of the room.

Then, a tall bulky figure walked out from behind one of the cube objects about fifty feet in front of the tank. It was an Elite armed with a plasma rifle. The Elite saw the tank and fired on it, also alerting other Covenant forces in the chasm to the squad's presence.

"More Covenant!" a solider shouted.

"Damn, these guys are like cockroaches," another soldier said as he fired on the Elite.

The tank's cannon aimed at the Elite, who spotted the cannon and dived behind the cube object. Eve fired a shot from the cannon at the floor on the other side of the cube object. A loud scream was heard and the body of the Elite flew out from behind the object over the edge of the floor and disappeared into the massive trench

Eve drove the tank forward into the chasm. As it drove further into the chasm, it attracted the attention of Covenant turrets, two on the squad's side, one at either end of the surface, and two on the other side, again one at both ends of the other side's surface.

Eve fired a shot from the cannon at the turret to the right from the tank. The turret was hit and exploded in dust. Then she turned the cannon round to face the other turret and fired again. This time, the turret flew up into the air and disappeared into the trench. The destruction of both of the turrets caused two nearby Grunts and a Jackal to run for the bridge. Unfortunately, Eve spotted them and fired a barrage from the tank's machine gun at the three Covenant troops, killing them.

"This side's clear," the sergeant announced. "Let's move onto the next side,"

Eve drove the tank around the side of a cube object and down the bridge. However, the tank was suddenly shook by a green explosion, which killed one of the soldiers. Eve looked out through the tank's window and saw two Hunters near a pillar that held up the ceiling, which was the interior of the mountain. Eve fired a shot at the Hunters, hitting and killing one of them. However, the other Hunter fired another projectile at the tank, hitting the sphere below the cannon. Luckily, it was not destroyed. Eve retaliated by firing another shot at the other Hunter, hitting and killing that one as well.

"Hunter's down," the sergeant announced. "Push forward."

"RUN AWAY!" a nearby Grunt yelled as it fled towards a cube shaped object, only to be killed by one of the soldiers on the right side of the tank.

As Eve drove the tank right across the massive surface, she saw another large metal door in the wall. The control panel for this door was built into the wall rather than two panels sticking up from floor. A holographic switch was visible. Eve stopped the tank, got out and rested a hand on the switch. The door broke into four and disappeared into the walls. Another obstacle was out of the way. They were one step closer to the control centre.

"How far are we from the control centre?" Eve asked Auto as she got back into the scorpion tank.

"Probably only half-way there," Auto replied. "Whoever, or whatever, built the control centre really picked the right place for it."

When the door was open, Eve got back into the tank and drove it down the corridor. As they approached the end, Eve saw a right turning. However, as the tank got closer to the right turning several boulders and snow were visible on the ground of the corridor, along with another turning that led left.

When the tank reached the turning, the crew saw a parked ghost with an Elite standing guard nearby. The soldiers on the side of the tank fired at the Elite, killing it.

"Where the hell are we?" Eve asked.

"The left turning leads up some kind of hill," Auto replied. "But the good news is that the tunnel leads to an exit out of the mountain,"

"Well that's good," Eve said. "I was getting worried that we would stuck in here,"

Eve drove the tank over the boulders and remains of the ghost. She turned the tank left. Ahead of the massive vehicle was a hill that went up at a twenty to thirty degree angle. The mountain's rock made the hill a cave that would lead down into the structure in the mountain. The hill was covered with boulders, snow and, unsurprisingly, Covenant turrets. Luckily, there was only a Grunt on one turret and two Jackals nearby. High above the crew of the tank was a massive hole. Their ticket out of the mountain.

Eve drove the tank up the hill towards the hole at the top. The Grunt and two Jackals spotted the turret and fired on the tank, only to be blown apart by the tank's cannon and machine gun. Once these Covenant were out of the way, the tank drove onwards, jolting every few seconds as it went over a boulder. As the hole got closer, the scorpion tank's crew could see the side of a massive structure that looked like it towered hundreds of feet tall.

"Look out!" one of the soldiers on the side of the tank exclaimed, pointing out at the hole.

A Covenant drop ship slowly descended into view. The turret on the back of the ship aimed at the tank and fired. Luckily, the armour was thick enough to resist the blasts, for now at least. The drop ship then hovered about ten feet above the ground. It's side doors opened and a minor Elite with three Grunts and two Jackals jumped out of the ship onto the ground, which was covered with a layer of snow as well.

"Get ready for battle, marines," the sergeant ordered.

The soldiers reloaded their weapons for the coming fight. As the tank reached the top of the hill, and the mouth the cave, the soldiers fired at the Covenant troops, who retaliated with their own gunfire.

The tank's cannon aimed at the Elite and his squad of Grunts.

BOOM! The cannon fired a shot at the Covenant squad. The Covenant were thrown high into the air by the force of the explosion of the cannon's shell. Their bodies were scattered all over the snow covered ground.

"Ghost incoming!" the sergeant shouted.

A ghost hovered out from behind a small hill, a minor Elite piloting the vehicle. Eve aimed the tank's cannon at the ghost and fired a shot. The ghost exploded into a fireball and skidded cross the ground, cutting through the snow as if it were made of paper. Finally, it came to a rest a few feet from the side of the tank.

The tank's machine gun aimed at the two Jackals, who were nearby and firing from behind their shields. The machine gun chattered as it fired on the two aliens. The shields were no match against the force of the bullets and were destroyed. The Jackals were hit continuously and crumpled onto the snow, dead.

"Alright, let's advance," the sergeant ordered.

Eve drove the tank towards the hill on the right side of the structure. There was a gap between the side of the structure and the hill that was big enough for the scorpion to fit through. When the tank drove past the side of the structure, the crew saw a diamond shaped door in the side of the building. Now came a hard obstacle in the tank's path. Ahead of it was a massive frozen lake. The ice looked thick enough to withstand the scorpion tank's enormous weight, but what worried Eve and the squad was that there was a wraith parked out in the middle of the ice. If an Elite piloted it, the squad would have to be extra careful in taking it down in case the ice cracked and broke apart.

Suddenly, an Elite ran out from behind a large boulder, on the other side of the frozen lake, onto the ice towards the wraith. The squad saw it but did not have any long range weapons, apart from the tank but they did not want to use it, to kill the Elite. With no choice, Eve reversed the tank behind the hill. Just in time as the Elite boarded the wraith and fired a mortar blast at the tank. Thankfully, it hit the hill and exploded.

"What are we gonna do?" one of the soldiers asked.

"I don't know," the sergeant replied. "All I know is that we have to destroy that wraith or at least find a way around it,"

Eve opened the hatch of the tank, just in time to witness another mortar shell explode on the side of the mountain above the tank and It's crew.

"WATCH OUT!" she screamed.

The squad failed to hear her scream. A stealth Elite, armed with an energy sword, had run out from inside the structure towards the tank. An unlucky soldier was hit in the back with the sword and fell to the ground dead.

The squad yelled and dived off the tank. The Elite jumped onto the tank and bared It's mandibles at Eve. Eve gasped and staggered back a few steps as the Elite marched towards her. Suddenly, a barrage hit the Elite in the back, sides, chest and head, killing it. The body fell onto the tank and dropped off onto the ground. The soldiers had fired on the Elite just in time to save Eve.

"Thanks, guys," Eve said, relieved.

BOOM! Another mortar exploded on the ground, this time it was closer to the tank. Only a few more would most likely follow before one eventually hit the tank. "How the hell are we gonna destroy that wraith?" the sergeant asked.

"We'll have to use the tank," Eve replied.

"We can't use the tank," one of the soldiers protested. "If we do, we'll break the ice."

"Well we can't stand here and wait for that thing to blow us apart either," Eve told the soldier.

"_What's your plan, then?" _Auto asked Eve through his com.

"We destroy the wraith, then we have to leave the scorpion and run across the ice before it breaks," Eve answered.

"What if the ice breaks before we get across it?" another soldier asked Eve.

"We'll just have to risk it," Eve replied. "Get ready to run,"

Eve got back into the tank and drove it into the gap between the hill and the structure, facing the wraith out on the ice. Eve breathed in. This plan was suicidal. No surprise there. If the ice broke before or whilst the squad was running across it, they would drown or freeze to death in the water that was probably almost fifty degrees below zero. They would be dead within minutes, even with the protection of their uniforms. Breathing in again, Eve fired another shot at the wraith.

The wraith exploded into a fireball, throwing the Elite high into the air and landing on the ice, dead. A wide smile spread across Eve's face. She threw the hatch open and looked out on the ice. It had not broken or cracked even a little. Looks like the ice was stronger than she thought.

Suddenly, a loud crack turned Eve's smile into disbelief. A massive crack spread across the ice and stopped where the ice met the snow. Then more cracks began to appear across the surface of the frozen water.

"C'mon!" Eve ordered.

Eve jumped down and ran out onto the ice; the soldiers sprinted after her. The squad almost slipped up a few times as they reached the middle of the frozen lake. Suddenly, a massive chunk of the ice broke apart, making a hole into the freezing water. Eve only just missed the hole by jumping over, only having to skid across the ice even more. Finally, Eve reached the snow on the other side of the frozen lake. Breathing a sigh or relief that she had not fallen over and broken a leg or arm, Eve held out her arm and pulled the other soldiers off the ice and onto the snow.

"This is not what I signed up for," one of the soldiers whined. "The UNSC orders me to go kill Covenant, not skate around on ice and try break my neck,"

"Quit the whining!" the sergeant barked. "Just be lucky you made it across. You could have frozen to death on that lake."

Another loud crack indicated that a huge chunk of ice had broken apart and was floating off towards the other side of the lake. Suddenly, the destroyed wraith tilted slightly before smashing through the ice, creating another massive hole, and sank into the freezing water.

"That was lucky," Eve said. "We better keep moving,"

Eve turned and ran behind the boulder; the soldiers followed. The squad found themselves in another pass that led to another large open area about fifty feet ahead. Eve lead the squad onwards towards the open area.

The open area was actually a small path that led down from a hill the squad was on to a small frozen river which disappeared left behind the path towards some pillars in front of a cave that led into the mountain. There were several boulders scattered near the edge of the hill and against the mountain. However, two Jackals were hiding behind a nearby boulder next to the mountain. They spotted the squad and fired on them.

"Shoot 'em!" the sergeant ordered.

The squad fired a barrage at the Jackals. Although the bullets bounced off the shields, the forced of the barrage forced Jackals to retreat backwards towards the edge of the hill. Eventually, the Jackals retreated back too far and fell over the edge of the hill. A loud thump was heard a second later.

"C'mon. Let's keep moving," Eve said.

The squad ran along the top of the hill and onto the path that led to the frozen river. When they were near the bottom, Eve saw movement down the frozen river near the pillars.

"Keep your weapons ready," Eve whispered to the squad as their run slowed to a pace.

Eve raised her battle rifle and slowly walked towards the side of the hill path. She did not know if the movement was more Covenant or UNSC marines. She doubted it would be Covenant because they would most likely have fired on the squad by now but was not prepared to take the risk.

"Who's there?" Eve demanded, her finger on the trigger ready to shoot if whoever was behind the path was a Covenant soldier.

"Eve?" a voice said.

A marine stood out from behind the hill path. He was carrying a SRS99C-S2 sniper rifle. Four other marines stood out from behind the hill path.

"Oh, thank God It's you," Eve said, lowering her weapon. "Sorry, we thought you were Covenant,"

"That's okay," the marine at the front of his squad replied.

"How did you guys get down here?" the sergeant asked. "I thought we were the only UNSC forces dropped into this area,"

"No," the marine replied. "Victor 933 dropped us off here from Alpha Base to try and link up with you guys. Unfortunately, everywhere we tried to land was covered with Covenant defences. We also tried to contact you guys to see if you near, but something in this area of the ring's messing with our equipment. Anyway, Victor dropped us off here about half an hour ago," the marine concluded.

Suddenly, Eve heard a loud whirring noise. She knew what that noise was and it was never good news.

"I can hear a Covenant drop ship," Eve said. "We have to move, c'mon,"

Eve ran past the second squad of marines towards the pillars; the soldiers followed. The group ran through the gaps between the pillars into the cave. They turned left down the cave. At the other end was the cave's exit. The group ran towards it. Suddenly, they screeched to a halt as an energy sword floated into view. A loud roar was then heard and the sword headed straight for the squad.

"Fire!" the sergeant shouted.

A barrage of gunfire flew out at the stealth Elite. After a few seconds, the Elite's shield was disabled, revealing the alien, and the Elite was killed.

"Let's keep moving," the sergeant said.

The squad ran onwards out of the cave. The squad was revealed to be outside another small pass that led into a large bowl like area, again with the mountains too high to see the tops of them. A small path several metres ahead of the squad led up into the bowl area.

"Reload your weapons," Eve ordered. "We don't know what could be waiting for us in here,"

The squad reloaded their weapons. There could be loads of Covenant defences in this bowl area so they were going to need to be prepared.

Eve raised her battle rifle and, cautiously, walked forward into the bowl area. The squad followed her. Step by step, they were getting closer to whatever could be waiting for them. If there was any Covenant, there was most likely to be many of them.

The squad reached the top of the path. Several hundred feet ahead of them was a small path that went down underneath some top rectangle shaped girders. The path led down and went straight before going up again to the other side of the girders near the mountain at the back of the bowl area. On the right side of the mountain was a large diamond shaped door that led into the mountain. Eve looked up and saw two bridges, going across the sky from one side of the mountain to the other, several thousand feet above the ground.

"Watch it!" the sergeant shouted.

The squad dived out of the way as a ghost shot past where they had just been standing. A minor Elite was piloting the vehicle. Eve got up and fired a burst from her battle rifle at the Elite. The Elite growled and headed straight for Eve, who yelped and dived out of the way.

The soldier with the sniper rifle fired a shot at the ghost. The bullet disabled the shield but did no more damage. However, disabling the shield startled the Elite and almost caused it to fall out of the ghost's saw her chance. She ran over to the ghost and jumped onto the Elite. Unfortunately, the Elite's foot hit the ghost's accelerator, causing it to shoot forward towards the diamond shaped door. Eve noticed what was happening and jumped off the ghost onto the ground.

CRASH! The ghost crashed into the diamond shaped door, throwing the Elite out of the vehicle's seat into the door. A loud cracking sound was heard and the Elite slid down the door onto the ground and did not rise again.

The soldiers ran over to Eve.

"You okay?" the sergeant asked her

Eve nodded. She walked towards the door. It opened as she approached it. Eve climbed over the ghost to go into the corridor behind the door. Then, she noticed the soldiers were not following her.

"Are you guys coming?" Eve asked the soldiers.

"No, Eve," the sergeant replied. "We've sent out a distress signal. The pelican will be here shortly. Until then we'll stay here and guard the entrance, make sure no Covenant try and attack you from behind."

"Thank you," Eve said.

"Give 'em hell, Eve," the sergeant said to Eve just as the door closed.

Eve was now on her own. It was up to her and Auto to find Halo's control centre before the Covenant. Eve ran down the corridor, turned right into a smaller one, then left into another long corridor that lead to a diamond shaped door. Eve ran up to the door, again it opened for her when she was near it.

Eve was revealed with another circular shaped room with a middle section. The only differences this time that there was a large square shaped glass window in front of her on the outside of the middle section's wall, right of this side's and there was some kind of blockade on the right side of the path around the middle section's wall.

Eve heard a footfall nearby. She looked through the glass window into the room's middle section. A minor Elite walked into view of the window towards an opening on the other side of the middle section.

"The Covenant do have the entire region secure," Auto said.

"Wow, I wonder what gave you that idea," Eve replied sarcastically.

"Shut up," Auto mumbled.

Eve rolled her eyes and crept forward into the room. The Elite had walked through the opening on the other side of the room and turned left, disappearing behind the middle section's wall. Eve saw her chance and ran through the opening and hid behind a small cube shaped object near the middle of the room. It was a good thing that Eve made her move as well because as soon as she made it to the cube shaped object, a major Elite walked down from the path outside the room's middle section towards the diamond shaped door. Eve saw him as he walked past the opening and ran behind the other side of the cube shaped object.

"Try and take one out when the other's not looking," Auto whispered to Eve.

"Okay," Eve replied.

Eve waited until the major Elite had walked past the opening towards the door. She had to be quick. The other Elite could end up walking down the same path towards the door as well. If it saw Eve, the two Elites would kill her.

Eve breathed in and crept out from behind the cube shaped object towards the opening, as she reached it, the major Elite stopped near the room's door. Perfect! Eve took out her battle rifle and ran silently over to the Elite. When she was a few feet behind the Elite, Eve whacked the Elite in the back with her weapon. The impact broke through the shield and smashed the Elite's back, killing it. The Elite fell forward onto the floor, dead.

"One down," Auto said. "One to-"

A loud roar suddenly cut Auto off. The minor Elite must have heard It's brother's body hit the floor and rushed over to see what was happening. The Elite fired a blast from It's plasma rifle at Eve, who dived behind the wall coming out from the diamond shaped door.

"So much for a silent takedown," Auto said.

"Don't worry, I got this," Eve replied.

The Elite continued to fire on the wall around Eve. Eve was waiting for the barrage to stop, but it showed no sign of stopping. Eve aimed her battle rifle out from behind the wall and fired at the Elite. At once the barrage stopped and a thud was heard. Eve peeked her head out from behind the wall to see the Elite lying dead on the floor.

Eve got up and ran through the opening to the middle section of the room, through the middle section, out the second opening and through another diamond shaped door. Eve ran down the short corridor and turned left into another long corridor. She then ran down this corridor towards the end. However, a patrolling Jackal walked out from the next corridor. Eve screeched to a halt and fired at the Jackal just as it spotted her. The bullets ripped through the Jackals' chest, killing it.

Eve onward and turned left into the next corridor, jumping over the dead body of the Jackal. At the end was another diamond shaped door. Eve ran towards it. The door opened as she approached it. Eve was again revealed with another circular/hexagon shaped room that had a path going around the walls of a middle section. In this room's middle section were several large square shaped openings on the walls that led onto several small walkways a few feet below the ceilings above the path that went around the middle section.

As Eve stepped into the room, a Grunt appeared in one of the square shaped openings and saw Eve through an opening that led into the room's middle section. The Grunt fired a blast at her but Eve dodged it by diving forward behind the outside of the middle section's wall.

Eve loaded another clip into her battle rifle as she got up. She then ran to the opening and fired on the Grunt, hitting it and killing it. A Jackal ran into the middle section through the opening at the other end of the middle section and activated It's shield. The alien fired at Eve, hitting her suit. The shield shone up and her holographic meter appeared. The level was in the green zone and was flashing red. After a few seconds, the flashing disappeared and the meter rose back to the top again.

Eve aimed her battle rifle at the Jackal and fired a burst of ammo at it. The Jackal, however, raised It's shield in front of it. The bullets bounced off the shield and hit the walls around the room. The Jackal then charged up It's plasma pistol. Eve saw this and ran back out the opening and dived behind the wall, narrowly missing the deadly blast as it soared through the opening and hit the wall.

"There's no way we're getting around that Jackal," Eve said as she stood up.

"Go around him," Auto replied.

Eve nodded and ran down the path that led around the middle section's wall. When she reached the other side of the middle section, she saw a small slope corridor leading about ten feet down into a large room. The corridor was a bronze/brown colour and seemed to be lit up by It's walls.

Eve walked down the corridor into the room at the bottom. It was another small hall with a strange ramp in the middle. At the other end of the hall was a small hexagon shaped door. Eve walked towards it, causing it to open as she approached it. There was a small corridor about thirty feet long behind the door. It then turned left into another corridor. Eve ran down this corridor and turned left into the next. At the end of this corridor was another hexagon shaped door. It opened as Eve approached it.

Eve was revealed with another silo-like room. Instead this time she was at the bottom, not at the top. There was a control panel on the floor underneath a small round lift. Eve walked onto the lift and rested a hand on the control panel. She jolted slightly as the lift moved, then rose upwards towards the top of the silo. As the lift got closer to the top of the silo, Eve could see a small square shaped platform leading off the side of the silo's walls. As the lift reached the platform, a Jackal happened to be standing guard on it. It spotted Eve, but was killed by a burst from Eve's battle rifle before it could react. Eve walked over the Jackals' dead body through an open hexagon shaped doorway, which the Jackal had been standing in. Eve walked down the corridor behind this doorway and turned right into another corridor that led to another hexagon shaped door. The door opened for Eve as she approached it. Eve found herself in another corridor, only this time it was about fifteen feet wide and had several blockade like objects along It's side walls. This corridor led to a massive wall with a long and thin glass window on it. Eve realised that this room was most likely to be exactly the same as the room she was in before she reached Fire Team Zulu earlier on.

"Talk about walking into the same room twice," Auto said.

"I guess whoever built this place ran out of ideas for room making," Eve replied

Auto chuckled slightly, so did Eve. Eve walked towards the wall at the end of the corridor. She looked through the glass and saw several strange ramp-like objects in the room. They were not like the two she had seen in the halls. They were longer and wider with several lights on their sides and they were not as tall.

Then, a Grunt lumbered out from behind one of the ramps. It was carrying a needler. After this, a minor Elite walked into view from the left. Eve ducked down as it scanned the room, probably thinking there was an enemy around. Then again, with the amount of troops and tanks and turrets they had here the Elite doubted that not even a camouflaged Elite could walk through this entire area without getting killed.

"I wonder how many Covenant are here," Auto whispered.

"Hopefully, not many," Eve whispered back.

Eve, staying low, walked down the path that led around the middle section's walls. Like in the first room she had entered, like this, there was an opening that led into the middle section of the room. Two Grunts were sleeping near the opening. Eve would not be able to sneak past them without waking them up or alerting one of the two guards in the middle section of the room. So she went onto her second option, silently knock them out or kill them.

Eve breathed in and crept out in front of the opening. She took kept her battle rifle by her side. When she near the first Grunt, a minor, she raised it above her head and brought it down with a heavy thud on the Grunt's head, killing it. She then swung her battle rifle at the other Grunt, luckily knocking out this one instead of killing it.

Eve quickly ran, as quiet as she could, past the opening and down the path that led around the other side of the middle section. She had to be quick. It would not be long before the Elite and Grunt patrolling in the middle section of the room spotted the two Grunts and raised the alarm. As Eve came near a wall at the end of the path, which would have lead to the corridor she entered the room through, she saw a large diamond shaped door on the wall to her right. It opened since Eve was near it. Suddenly, a loud roar erupted in the room. The Elite and Grunt had seen the bodies of the two Grunt's.

Eve ran through the open doorway into the corridor behind it. She ran to the end of this corridor, turned right into a small corridor then left into another long corridor with another diamond shaped door at the end. It opened as Eve approached it.

Eve was outside again. Only this time, she was over a thousand feet up into the air on the left bridge of the two she had seen when she was on the ground. This bridge was much like the first bridge she had been on in this area, except it did not have a lower section. Along this bridge were several blockades to act as barriers. Eve walked onto the bridge. Down the bridge near the first blockade, several Jackals had their shields activated and were running about as if they were getting ready to fight an enemy. Eve, however, could not see the enemy the Jackal's were up against.

Then, the shape of a pelican rose up from the side of the bridge. The Jackals fired on the pelican. The pelican turned round so It's entrance was facing the bridge. At that same moment, Eve's ear radio crackled to life.

"_Open fire on 'em, boys," _

Eve recognized that voice. It was the sergeant of the squad of marines. Eve rested a finger on the radio in her ear.

"Guys. This is Eve," Eve said.

"_Eve! Good, you nearby. Where are you?"_

"I'm at the left end of the bridge," Eve replied.

_"Alright. We'll provide covering fire."_

"Thanks," Eve said as she took her finger off the radio.

At once, a barrage of gunfire erupted from the pelican's resting area. The Jackals that were firing at the pelican were quickly mown down by the gunfire from the marines.

Eve ran forward down the bridge. The barrage moved ahead of her down the bridge. A Grunt armed with a plasma pistol tried to hide behind a blockade several metres ahead of Eve, but the barrage hit the Grunt and killed it. As Eve reached the blockade, a minor Elite ran out from behind another blockade near some kind of massive barrier in front of the diamond shaped door at the other end of the bridge. Eve fired two bursts from her battle rifle at the Elite, hitting it in the head and killing it.

"_Thanks for the help,"_ Auto said through his com.

"_It's alright, guys. We'll stay here and cover you as you come out on the other bridge. Afterwards, we'll head back to Alpha Base,"_

_"You got it," _Auto replied.

Eve ran down the bridge towards the diamond shaped door. She ran around the barrier in front of the door and through the diamond shaped door, which opened as she approached it. Eve ran down the corridor behind this door and turned right into another corridor. At the end of this corridor was another diamond shaped door. Eve ran towards the door. It opened as she approached it.

Eve was in another circular/hexagon shaped room with middle section walls going around the middle of the room. However, there was a big difference in the middle section of the room. There was a path that led up into a small roofed bridge-like building. Another path led down from the other side of the bridge structure and met with the floor just a few feet in front of the opening on the other side of the middle section.

Eve walked into the room and stopped a few feet in front of the opening to the room's middle section. She scanned the area. There were no Covenant. Usually as soon as she would enter a room, a Covenant soldier would fire on her or come into view. Not this time. Where were the Covenant?Suddenly, Eve heard a high pitched voice. It came from the bridge structure in the middle of the room. Then, another voice was heard. It was that of a Jackal, which Eve could tell because of the strange growl it would make when it was speaking.

All of a sudden, a loud roar erupted in the room. An Elite that had been patrolling around the other side of the middle section had spotted Eve. It fired a barrage out of It's plasma rifle at her, but Eve dodged the blasts by jumping behind the wall. "The Covenant really don't want us going this way," Auto said. "That means we're going in the right direction towards the control centre," Eve replied as she loaded another clip into her battle rifle.

Eve ran out from behind the wall into the middle section of the room, firing her battle rifle at the Elite. The Elite was hit in the chest, head and stomach. It fell to the floor, dead. Then, two green blasts hit Eve's shield. Eve turned and saw two Jackals and a Grunt o the path leading up to the bridge structure. She fired a barrage at these Covenant soldiers, killing them as well.

Eve then ran out of the middle section through the opening on the other side of the bridge structure. Suddenly, a nearby diamond shaped door opened up and two Grunt and a Jackal ran out in the room. The Jackal screeched and pointed at Eve. Eve fired a burst from her battle rifle at the alien, hitting it and killing it.

"RUN FOR IT!" one of the Grunts yelled.

The two Grunts ran down the path that led around the right side of the middle section. Eve ran through the diamond shaped door, down the corridor behind it and turned left into the next corridor. At the end of this corridor was another diamond shaped door. It opened as Eve approached it.

Eve found herself back outside again. This time, she was on the right bridge. Like the left bridge, there were blockades down this bridge and a barrier in front of the diamond shaped door at the other end of the bridge.

Eve heard the engine of the pelican. Half-way down the bridge, a gunfight was raging. Three Jackals, four Grunts and an Elite were firing on the pelican, which had the resting area facing the bridge and a barrage was firing out of the resting area at the Covenant.

Eve ran down the bridge toward the battle. When she was about ten feet from the gunfight, she stopped and aimed her battle rifle at one of the Jackals. The alien was completely exposed to her because It's shield was covering the front of his body, but left his side unprotected. Eve fired a burst of ammo at the Jackal. The Jackal screeched loudly as it was hit and fell to the bridge's floor, dead.

The death of the Jackal alerted the rest of the Covenant squad. The Elite growled and fired on Eve. Her shield was hit several times. Eve tried to find cover but there was nowhere to hide. Then, the two remaining Jackals fired on her. The suit's holographic meter appeared above Eve's wrist. The level was going down fast. Then, it was empty.

Eve felt a sharp pain. The shield was broken and she had no protection from the barrage of blasts. Blood began to seep from the wound. Eve dropped her battle rifle and collapsed onto the floor. The Elite walked over to Eve.

"Eve!" Auto exclaimed. "Please don't die!"

The Elite reached Eve. It let out a small laugh. How pathetic. The Elite had been told of this super soldier and yet she was so easy to bring down. Now all he had to do was fire one more blast at his enemy and that would be it. She would be dead, along with mankind's only hope for survival.

Eve could not reach her battle rifle. Her arm was hurting too much from where the blast had hit it. It was probably already too late now. The Elite had reached her and was going to finish the job. Eve closed her eyes and got ready for her life to come to an end.

BANG! An explosion erupted in the Covenant squad, killing the two remaining Jackals and all of the Grunts. The explosion also startled the Elite, causing it to turn round and fire back on the pelican. Eve grabbed the Elite's legs with her uninjured arm and pulled backwards. The Elite yelled as it fell forward onto the bridge floor. The armour on It's head twisted as it collided with the floor and went straight into the Elite's head, killing it.

"Eve!" a soldier exclaimed.

Eve looked up at the pelican. Two soldier rushed over to her, one of them carrying a medic kit. They knelt down next to Eve when they reached her.

"Get out a serum," one of the soldiers ordered.

The other soldier opened up the medic kit and took out a needle.

"This is going to hurt, Eve," he said as he placed the needle onto the wound.

Eve gritted her teeth to stop herself from screaming in pain as the serum was injected into her. Luckily, the serum numbed her arm so it did not hurt as much. The soldier with the medic kit then took out a bandage and wrapped it round the wound on Eve's arm.

"That should stop the bleeding," he said.

"Thanks," Eve said as she slowly got up.

"Do you think you should continue?" the other soldier asked Eve.

"_We have to," _Auto answered, through his com, before Eve could. _"If we don't, the Covenant will get to the control centre before us,"_

"WATCH OUT! HUNTERS!" a soldier on the pelican yelled.

BOOM! BOOM! Two green explosion threw the three to the bridge's floor. Eve was he first to get up. Across from them, on the other bridge, two Hunters were aiming their plasma cannons at them. Suddenly, the cannons lit up and fired two projectiles at the squad. Eve pushed the two soldiers, who had just stood up from the bridge's floor, back onto the floor again. The projectiles exploded on the side of the bridge, amazingly doing no damage at all.

"What are we going to do?" one of the soldiers asked.

Eve looked around the bridge to try and find a weapon to use against the Hunters. She found it. One of the Grunts' needlers laid on the bridge's surface. Eve dived over to it, narrowly missing the blast radius of another projectile, grabbed it and aimed it at the Hunters. She pulled the trigger.

A barrage of purple projectiles flew out towards the Hunters. When they reached them, they broke through the Hunters' armour and embedded themselves in their skin. More and more were piling up on their bodies. If this kept up, they would look like giant purple porcupines.

BANG! The projectiles exploded. The explosion was so powerful that it actually threw both Hunters several feet into the air. They landed with two loud thuds back onto the bridge's surface. Eve dropped the needler back onto the floor.

"Good work, Eve," one of the soldiers said. "Are you sure you want to continue?" he asked her.

"I have to," Eve replied. "If I don't we're all going to die,"

"Okay," the soldier said. "But if you get injured again, we're pulling you out of here,"

Eve nodded. The soldiers got back into the pelican and sat down on the resting area's seats. The pelican hovered several feet into the air before it flew off towards the mountain then began to rise further up into the sky. Within a few seconds, it disappeared into the snow dropping clouds high above the mountains.

"We better get moving," Auto said.

Eve nodded and took out her battle rifle before she ran down the bridge towards the barrier in front of the diamond shaped door. Eve ran round the barrier, through the diamond shaped door, which opened as she approached it, and down the corridor behind the door. Eve turned left after reaching the end of the first corridor, then turned right into the next corridor and then turned left into a smaller corridor that led to another diamond shaped door. Eve ran towards the door, causing it to open for her as she approached it. Eve was revealed with another circular/hexagon shaped room with a middle section. The middle section of the room had two four foot high ramps run from the left wall to the right wall. The two ramps were separated by a six foot space of floor. Above the floor, in the middle of the space between the two ramps, was a large cube shaped object with openings on It's sides. There was a glass window on the wall next to the opening to this room's middle section.

Eve walked into the room up to the glass window. She looked through it and gasped. Two more Hunters were standing guard on the ramps. Between them was a zealot Elite. This was every UNSC soldiers worst nightmare. Being faced with Hunters and the deadliest known rank in the Elite's army was what the UNSC soldiers nicknamed 'The Fight OF No Return.' Luckily, for the moment, the three Covenant soldiers were facing the opposite direction Eve was facing.

Eve gulped. This was a bad situation, even for her. If she was spotted by these three Covenant, they would kill her within seconds. Eve was worried deeply. The right path around the middle section of the room had a blockade in it, so the only other ways were through the middle section or around use the left path that led left around the middle section of the room, which led past the opening.

"We have to find a way past the opening without alerting these Covenant," Auto whispered to Eve.

"How?" Eve whispered back. "If they see me, they'll kill me and you,"

BANG! A loud explosion threw Eve through the air and landed her painfully on her injured arm. Eve yelled in pain as she hit the floor. Her battle rifle was lying on the floor next to her. Her suit's shield was beeping like mad. The holographic meter appeared and showed it to be completely empty. Oh God. This is not good.

The zealot Elite walked out of the opening towards Eve, the two Hunters right behind him. The Elite laughed as it stopped several feet from Eve, not intending to make the same mistake the other Elites had made. Eve's eyes then widened with horror. One of the Hunters began to charge up his cannon. This shot was to finish Eve off once and for all. She had only seconds to react. Eve grabbed her battle rifle and threw it at the Hunter as it fired the projectile.

BOOM! A massive explosion erupted in the room. Eve covered her head with her hands. She waited for the dust to settle. Two seconds passed. Eve slowly lifted her head out from behind her hands. The Hunter that fired the projectile was lying on the floor, dead. Next to him, also lying dead on the floor, was the zealot Elite and the other Hunter. The battle rifle had not stopped the projectile from firing, but instead caused it to explode as it hit the battle rifle. The resulting explosion killed the Elite and the other Hunter in the blink of an eye.

Eve breathed a sigh of relief as she got up. Her holographic meter appeared above her wrist. A charging sound was heard and the meter's level rose to the top again. In a few seconds, the meter was full again, meaning Eve's shield was fully charged.

Eve ran through the middle section to the diamond shaped door on the other side of the room. The door opened to allow her to pass. Eve ran down this corridor, turned right into another corridor that was about sixty feet long and ran down that one. She turned right again into the next corridor. At the end was another diamond shaped door. It opened as Eve ran towards it.

Again, Eve was faced with another circular/hexagon shaped room. Another blockade was stopping Eve from running right around the middle section of the room. The middle section of the room had another large cube shaped object on the ceiling with four large opening on It's sides. There were several other large cube-shaped objects scattered around the middle section of the room. Eve walked into the room. She heard a slight stir from the middle section of the room. Eve crept towards the opening and looked inside. A Grunt was sleeping against one of the cube shaped objects. Then, out from behind another cube shaped object, a minor Elite walked out on a patrol. A Jackal followed several feet behind, It's shield activated from the device on It's arm.

"We need a weapon," Auto whispered to Eve as she rested her back against the outer wall of the middle section.

"I can't get the Grunt sleeping against the…thing in there," Eve whispered back. "Where am I going to get a weapon?"

It seemed Eve's question was answered immediately. Just as she finished speaking, a Grunt, armed with a plasma pistol, lumbered into view from behind the wall that led along the left path. Before the Grunt could see Eve, Eve ran over to the Grunt and tackled it to the floor. The Grunt kicked and squirmed to try and break out of Eve's grip, but Eve wrestled the plasma pistol from Grunt's hand and whacked the alien over the head with it, knocking the Grunt out cold.

Eve had to react quickly. The noise of the kicking and squirming would have surely alerted the Elite and Jackal. Eve ran around the room's middle section. She stopped outside a diamond shaped door. The door opened to allow Eve to pass. Suddenly, a loud roar erupted in the room. It was coming from the other side of the middle section. The Elite must have found the knocked out Grunt.

Eve ran down the corridor, turned left into a long corridor and then turned left into the next corridor. After running to the end of this corridor, she turned right into the next that had a diamond shaped door at the end. Eve ran down the corridor towards the door. It opened to allow her to pass.

Eve gasped. She was outside again. Only this time, she was on some kind of bridge made out of hard rock. Snow covered the surface of the rock bridge and there were several large boulders also scattered across It's surface.

Eve surveyed the scene around her. The rock bridge was in a large bowl-like area of the mountains. At the left end was some kind of dark light blue snow. Eve guessed it must have been a frozen waterfall. Below the rock bridge were several trees and, what Eve could just see, was a locked door that led into the mountain. That was left of the bridge. What about on the right side of the bridge? Eve looked over to the right of the bridge. She gasped again.

There was a huge structure built into the mountain. It was bigger than any building Eve had ever seen, even on Earth! The lower sections were like that of a pyramid and were the same as it worked It's way upwards. There was a path along the edge of each section. The second before top section was a wide space with silver coloured floors, which was the colour of most of the structure. The top section also had a wide floor space. It also had a tall structure going up about one hundred and fifty feet. There was a massive half hexagon shaped door built into the side of the mountain. There was also some kind of strange silo like section of the structure that was being held up by the side of the mountain. It must have been really tall because it just rose up into the clouds and disappeared.

"My God," Eve said, aghast. "That's the biggest structure I've ever seen,"

"And if my sources are correct, the control room should be inside that structure, or the mountain as I should say," Auto said.

"The only problem is, how do we get to it?" Eve asked.

A loud roar made the two jump. Further up the bridge, a minor Elite pointed at Eve and fired on her. Eve dived forward behind a boulder. The blasts hit the side of the boulder and fizzed away. Eve charged up her plasma pistol. She then rose up from behind the boulder and fired the charged shot at the Elite. The Elite's shield was hit and disabled, badly injuring the Elite. Eve then fired four more shots at the Elite from her plasma pistol, killing it. Eve ran on down the rock bridge, hoping to find a way down to the structure. When she was about half-way down the bridge, she found it. Parked up ahead were two massive Covenant vehicles. They looked like the Covenant needler weapons, except that there were no holes along the tops of the vehicles and there were two engines that were connected to the main part of the vehicle by two small spire/beam like parts of the ship, each. These were what the UNSC called Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft vehicles. The UNSC soldiers called it the Banshee.

Suddenly, Eve saw two Elites run towards the parked banshees. Eve ran towards the banshees as fast as she could. She was getting closer and closer. She could make it. She **would **make it! One of the Elites was also close to the banshee. No! Eve could not let him get into the vehicle first. It would be the quickest way of getting to the structure before the Covenant could.

Without thinking, Eve dived the last six feet towards the banshee. She failed to stop the Elite, who managed to get into the banshee. However, Eve landed on the right engine of the banshee. She screamed as the banshee jolted and then flew off into the air, only her screams were drowned by the ionic screaming of the banshee's engines.

Eve, hanging onto the engine for dear life, climbed down the engine towards the main body of the banshee. If she fell off or let go, she would fall to her death. The Elite must have realised she was on the banshee because it was tilting on It's sides and rolling from side to side to try and throw Eve off the engine. This, however, was not going to stop Eve.

Eve finally reached the main body of the banshee. The cog pit's roof, which was the top half of the banshee lowered down over the pilot to act as a shield, had not fully covered the Elite. The alien's feet were coming out from under the cog pit's roof. Eve grabbed the Elites' legs and, using all her might, pulled the Elite out of the banshee. The Elite, however, grabbed hold of Eve's leg. Eve screamed as she was almost pulled off of the banshee. The vehicle then began to slow down. Eve began to panic. If the banshee fully slowed down, it would fall out of the sky and crash into the ground. Eve had to stop that from happening.

Eve raised her free leg, then thrust it down onto the Elite's head. The Elite yelled loudly as it fell through the sky. It's yells and screams quickly faded away as the alien fell to the ground. Eve quickly pushed the cog pit's roof up and climbed into the cog pit's seat. She was met with a variety of controls and switches that controlled the banshee. Eve rested a hand on a holographic switch hovering above the controls. At once, the cog pit's roof lowered and the banshee's ionic screams erupted from It's engines. Eve had saved herself and Auto from certain death.

Eve pressed a button on the banshee's control panel. At once, a small screen of the outside terrain appeared in front of her. Eve was about one hundred feet above the rock bridge. Then, she saw the other banshee fly out from under the bridge straight towards her banshee. Eve yelped and pulled a throttle towards her. She felt her banshee fly upwards into the sky, the other banshee right behind her.

Suddenly, Eve's banshee shook. A small hologram of the vehicle appeared in front of Eve. One of the engines was flashing a light red, meaning it had been hit. Eve pulled the throttle left. The banshee turned round and flew straight towards the other banshee. Eve saw this on the small holographic terrain screen but she failed to move the banshee in time.

CRASH! Eve's banshee smashed right into the bottom of the Elite's banshee. Remarkably, Eve's banshee had literally torn most of the bottom off of the Elite's banshee and suffered little damage to hers. The two sections of the Elite's banshee, along with the Elite itself, fell through the air and crashed into the ground. The Elite was killed on impact.

"Alright, the defences are clear," Auto said. "Let's get to the control centre,"

Eve nodded and pushed the throttle backwards slightly to level the banshee with the pyramid structure before pushing it forward again. The banshee zoomed towards the structure. A wave of satisfaction swept over Eve. Finally, she and Auto had found Halo's control centre. They could finally save humanity and possibly even stop the Covenant. Eve felt like she had been given a new start in life. Another chance to begin her own life. Their mission was comple-

BOOM! A massive explosion ripped off the left engine of the banshee.

"We've taken heavy damage!" Eve shouted as an alarm went off in the banshee.

"Can you land it safely?!" Auto asked Eve, having to shout over the noise of the alarm.

"No!" Eve shouted back. "Brace for impact!"

CRASH! The banshee crashed into the floor of the top section of the pyramid. It skidded across the silvery surface, creating and throwing sparks everywhere. Finally, it came to rest as it hit the side of a ramp that led around the sides of the structure. Eve pushed the cog pit's roof open and staggered out of the banshee.

"Jesus Christ," Auto said. "What the hell hit our banshee?" he asked.

"Must…have been…a…Hunter," Eve replied, breathing heavily to recover from the shock.

"Should we go after it?" Auto asked her.

"No, there's no point," Eve answered. "We're here. Let's just get inside before that Hunter comes up here,"

Eve walked over to the half hexagon shaped door. It was about sixty feet wide with about thirty feet height. There were two large triangle shaped lights in the middle of the door. They were lit red, meaning they were locked.

"How do we get this door open?" Eve asked.

"There should be a control panel nearby," Auto replied. "Have a look round. You'll know what to do when you find it,"

Eve nodded and scanned the scene around her. She found the control panel to her left up against the mountain. Eve ran over to it and rested a hand on the holographic between the two panels. At once, the sound of moving metal echoed throughout the area. Eve shot round just in time to see the middle of the top half hexagon shaped door break apart from the lower half of the door. The lower half descended below into the ground whilst the top half rose up and disappeared inside the mountain.

"That's it," Auto said. "We're in. Just a few more of these and we're done,"

"Finally," Eve said, relieved.

As Eve walked towards the now open door, Auto said

"You know, something's been bugging me lately,"

"What is it?" Eve asked him.

"The Covenant strike team." Auto replied. "We haven't fought it yet."

"Maybe they got lost," Eve suggested. "Or maybe their troops were scattered across this entire mountain region and we killed them whilst heading this way,"

Eve walked into the massive corridor behind the door. It was light blue coloured with massive pillars that stretched up from the floor, went up along the sides of the walls, on both sides, and stopped at the ceiling. It looked like the entrance to some holy temple or shrine. Unfortunately, there was something else in the corridor as well.

"Oh, crap," Eve said, stopping dead in her tracks several feet inside the corridor.

In front of her, scattered around the corridor, were Covenant. Lots of Covenant. There was a zealot Elite, who must have been the leader as he was the only zealot there, three other Elites, one major, fifteen Jackals and twenty Grunts. They all stared at Eve. Like they were when they saw a human, they were not pleased to see her.

"I think you should run," Auto said to Eve.

"Good idea," Eve replied.

"DIE BAD GUY!" one of the Grunts yelled.

Eve turned and took off. Behind her, all the blast and projectile weaponry was going off at an extremely fast speed. Eve only managed to glimpse behind her to see a wave of colours heading straight for her. Eve reached the structure and jumped behind the banshee. The blasts and projectiles crashed into the sides, making it rock and cause smoke to erupt from the vehicle. Eve was worried that the banshee might explode, taking her with it.

"What do we do?" Auto asked.

"I'm not going up the structure," Eve said. "If I do, they'll corner me,"

"You can jump off if you go up there," Auto suggested.

"Yeah, and break my leg!" Eve replied sarcastically as she quickly rose up from behind the side of the banshee and fired a shot from her plasma pistol at a Grunt, killing it.

"What are we going to do then?" Auto asked Eve.

BANG! A projectile exploded above Eve on the side of the structure. The explosion caused several pieces of the structure to break off and fall onto the ground around Eve. One piece fell on top of another, creating some sort of see-saw. Eve moved her foot as it crashed onto the floor. When she put her foot on the see-saw in front of her, the other end rose up. A loud pounding made Eve jump. Two Hunters stomped over to Eve, their plasma cannons aimed directly at her. It got worse when the Covenant strike team surrounded her and aimed their guns at Eve. Eve closed her eyes and got ready to die. There was no way of escaping this. It seemed time had run out for Eve.

Then, Eve was sent flying into the air. She opened her eyes and screamed as she saw herself about twenty feet above the floor. She stopped going up higher in front of the hole. She grabbed hold of the ledge and pulled herself into the hole, barely missing a blast fired up at her from the zealot Elite.

BOOM! A massive explosion erupted from the bottom of the structure. Eve covered her ears and waited for the sound of the explosion to end. When it did, she looked over the edge down at where the banshee crashed. The banshee was even more of a wreck now. The roof had been blown to pieces, the other engine was been destroyed and there was a fire raging in the cog pit. However, the banshee had killed the entire Covenant squad and the two Hunters.

"Who knew we'd be saved by a banshee," Eve said.

Eve got up and walked out of the room she was in onto the walkway that led down onto the ground. Eve ran down the walkway to the ground then ran on back into the corridor. Up ahead was another half hexagon shaped door. Eve ran up to the control panel and rested a hand on the holographic switch. The sound of moving metal was heard again as the door broke in two to allow Eve to pass. Eve ran down the corridor behind this door. At the end was another half hexagon shaped door.

"That's it," Auto said. "Halo's control centre is on the other side of that door."

Eve breathed a sigh of relief. After all they went through, they had finally reached Halo's control centre. Eve ran over to the control next to the last half hexagon shaped door. She rested a hand on the holographic switch. The metal moving sound erupted again. The doors broke in two.

Eve gasped. The control centre was the biggest room she had ever seen. It was in a sphere shape with a large silo like opening at the bottom that must have led deep underground. In front of Eve was a walkway. The walkway carried on from the door to about half way into the sphere room. Then, it went into a circle from one around to the other. At the end of the straight part of the walkway was a control panel. Several feet behind the control panel, and floating above it, was a hologram of a large planet. Around that planet was a massive hologram of a ring. Halo.

"This is it," Auto said. "Halo's control centre."

Eve walked up to the control panel at the end of the walkway. When she reached it, she squeezed her shoulder with two fingers. The data cord rose up from her suit. Eve took it in her had and placed the ship in a slot on the control panel. Suddenly, a purple/light blue figure rose up from the control panel. It was Auto. He was about Eve's height now.

"Thank you," Auto said. "Glad to get out of that data cord,"

"Cramped?" Eve asked.

"No, boring as hell," Auto replied.

Eve chuckled slightly.

"Alright, what about Halo?" Eve asked.

"Oh yeah," Auto replied. "I'll just have a look. Give me a second."

Auto's holographic figure disappeared into control panel. Eve placed a finger on the radio in her ear.

"Captain McCrea," Eve said. "Captain McCrea. Do you copy, over?"

No response. Eve sighed.

_I'll leave him a message_ Eve thought.

"Okay," Eve said. "Uh…captain McCrea. If you get this message, me and Auto have found Halo's control centre. Auto's just looking into the Intel now. Lets us know where you are."

Eve took the finger off her radio. Just as she did, Auto's figure rose back up from the control panel. However, this time the happy expression on his face had turned into worry and shock.

"Eve," Auto said. "I've gone through the data in this ring. It's captain McCrea,"

"You can't get hold of him either?" Eve asked.

"No, not that," Auto replied. "The weapon's cache he was looking for. It's in the middle of a swamp,"

"Why are acting like that's serious?" Eve asked Auto. "Unless, is there a strong Covenant force there?" she asked Auto again.

"Well, there is a Covenant force there," Auto answered. "But there's something else there. Something unimaginable and horrible. It's buried in separate structures around this ring. And the captain's supposed weapon's cache is in one of those structures! You've got to stop him!"

"Whoa, Auto slow down," Eve said, trying to calm Auto. "What are talking abo-"

"Look, Eve. I can't explain it anymore!" Auto said. "Go. Find McCrea and stop him from entering that structure! GO!"

Eve turned and ran from the control room. What was McCrea heading into. Whatever it was, it had to be something bad. Very, very bad.

"**Before It's too late!" **


	21. New hostiles and new allies

**Twelve hours later**

Twelve hours have passed since Eve and Auto reached Halo's control centre. Twelve hours since Eve was warned by Auto that captain McCrea was heading into danger. After Eve had run outside Halo's control centre structure, Echo 419 came and picked her up and flew back into the ring's tunnel subsystems through a large hole in the side of a mountain near the pyramid structure.

After twelve hours of flying, Echo 419 had reached a large swamp. The tree canopy stretched much higher than the trees on Earth's rainforests. The climate, however, was not different from Earth's rainforests. It was either the dead of night, or there was a heavy storm above the rainforest because it was pouring down with rain. The air was hot and humid. It was so dark that Foe Hammer had to turn the lights in her pelican.

Echo 419's pelican lowered through the canopy towards the ground. The drop off point for Eve was a small soaked grass area filled with loose soil and soaking wet plants.

_"The last transmission from the captain's drop ship was from this area. That was over twelve hours ago,"_

Eve, who now had battle rifle which Echo 419 would keep a kit of to give to weapon less UNSC troops, jumped down the ten feet from the pelican to the ground. At once, her vanilla white hair was drenched. Water began sliding out of her hair down her face. Eve's suit was pretty much drenched as well.

_"When you locate captain McCrea, radio in and I'll come pick you up,"_

Eve placed a finger on the radio in her ear.

"Thanks, Foe Hammer," Eve said. "I'll contact you later,"

_"Good luck. Foe Hammer out,"_

Echo 419's pelican slowly hovered into the air. When it was about twenty feet above the ground, the pelican flew off into the trees and disappeared into the darkness. Eve was now alone.

Eve took out her battle rifle and walked through the swamp. The rain had made several small lakes that went up to Eve's ankles, in her suit's boots. Eve sighed. Dirt and leaves from submerged plants were getting stuck to her suit's boots and legs. This was really annoying Eve.

"What the…?" Eve said, absolutely speechless.

Up ahead was a small hill. The rain had pretty much destroyed this hill because with all the soil coming loose, it looked like some great beast had been ravaging at it and left it. That, however, was not what surprised Eve. Lying on the ground and against the small hill was a pelican. Eve ran over to the pelican. It looked a total wreck. It looked like it had crashed into the ground really hard because the wings were all bent and there were weapons and ammunition scattered all over the ground.

Eve ran up to the pelican and looked inside. The resting area's seats were wrecked and there were gunshot holes scattered across the floor and walls. The door to the pelican's cog pit was lying on the floor, having been ripped off It's hinges. What was strange was there were no dead bodies of UNSC marines on the ground and there were no survivors in the pelican. What the hell happened to the crew? And whoever, or whatever, attacked the pelican? Then, Eve heard a faint static noise among the equipment on the ground. She searched through the equipment until she found a small radio in the dirt. Eve picked it up and wiped the dirt off the radio.

_"Drop ship Victor 933-(static)-Axiom-need assistance. We are under att-attack by some new kind of hostile-isn't Covenant.- Captain McCrea reported captured by hostiles. - dug in a large structure in a swamp-We need to pull out. Please - I will send this message to repeat at-regular intervals. Drop ship Victor 933, clear,"_

Eve went wide-eyed. A new type of hostile that was not Covenant. Well, there was one good thing from the radio transmission. She now knew where captain McCrea was. Eve dropped the radio onto the ground. She had to find captain McCrea and rescue him from these 'new hostiles'.

BANG! A large explosion several hundred feet away made Eve jump. She turned round just in time to see the end of a fireball disintegrating in the rain. Eve ran over to where the explosion came from. She gasped.

A Covenant drop ship was lying against the side of another small hill with the two L-shaped sections pushed hard into the ground. The blue haze that usually hovered between the two L-shaped parts of the ship was gone. The turret had been ripped apart and the two doors on the side of the L-shaped parts of the ship had been torn off and broken apart in the crash. The remains were scattered up in some nearby trees or on the ground. Three Covenant Grunts and two Jackals were lying dead on the ground. One had a large wound on It's shoulder, probably where part of the drop ship's side doors had come off and sliced into it.

Eve was now more worried than she had ever been for some time. These unknown hostiles had most likely destroyed Victor 933's pelican and now they had destroyed a Covenant drop ship. Not that a Covenant drop ship was hard to take down, but it was hard to shoot it down with only little damage. These unknown hostiles must be in a great number or have some type of aircraft or have very advanced weaponry even the Covenant could not master.

Eve kept her finger on the trigger ready to kill these hostiles if she came across them. She walked onwards past the destroyed drop ship, but stopped when she saw a large tree up ahead. The tree had a long and wide branch sticking out of It's side that went over a small pit to the side of a hill. If Eve went across this branch, she might be able to find the structure captain McCrea had reportedly been taken to after the unknown hostiles captured him.

Eve climbed onto the side of the tree and walked along the branch towards the hill, not wanting to run because the branch's surface was too slippery to do so because of the rain. As Eve got closer to the hill, she could see the top of a Covenant turret. Eve aimed her battle rifle at the top of the turret and waited a few seconds. What? There was no Grunt or Elite in the turret. Maybe the Covenant left it here and forgot about it.

Then, something moved behind the top of the hill. Eve lowered her battle rifle slightly. A tall figure ran out from behind the hill the top of the hill and stopped next to the turret. It appeared to be facing in Eve's direction. The figure looked right and left several times before it turned and ran back behind the hill, disappearing from sight.

What the hell was that? It could not have been Covenant. If it was, it would have fired on Eve the moment it saw her. But it could not have been a UNSC soldier either. If it was, it would have waved or shouted at her to come over to position. Maybe it was one of these hostiles Eve had heard from Victor 933's radio. She quickly shook the thought out of her mind because if it was, it would have attacked her on sight.

Eve raised her battle rifle and, her vigilance level at It's height, walked forward. She would be ready to fire on anything that was hostile. When Eve reached the hill, she climbed up it onto the top. She looked at the sight in front of her.

There were several tall trees standing in a small valley-like place several metres away at the bottom of the hill. What was also in this valley, at the right end was a light. Eve walked along the hill towards the light. After a few feet, she saw it was a structure with a front shaped like an A, except there was no line going across the middle and the top of the structure was smooth, not pointed.

Suddenly, a barrage of gunfire exploded in the forest. It sounded like fire from MA5B and MA5C assault rifles. Then, several Grunts and Jackals ran out of the structure screaming in terror. An explosion lit up the jungle, throwing another Covenant turret, near the entrance to the structure, several feet into the air. It landed with a crash on the ground.

"Marines!" Eve exclaimed.

Eve ran down the hill towards the entrance of the structure. The screams and shouts of the fleeing Covenant faded away as they fled further into the jungle. Eve reached the structure's entrance. She looked inside.

There was a ramp that led from the structure's entrance to a large room inside the structure. The floor and walls were a silver coloured surface with strange markings engraved in them. There were two large pillars several feet from both ends of the room holding the ceiling up. There were two panels sticking up out of the floor with a holographic switch between them. The control panel was situated a few inches away from a massive circular shaped hole in the floor. Eve walked down into the structure. As she got closer to the bottom of the ramp, an electrical whirring sound was heard. It was coming from the hole. Eve ran up to the hole and looked down it to see a circular shaped lift rising up towards her. When it reached her, the lift stopped and a locking sound was heard, probably locking itself into place to be ready for the next person to ride it.

_Where are the marines? _Eve thought as she stepped onto the lift.

Eve walked over to the edge of the lift and rested a hand on the holographic switch between the two panels. At once, she jolted slightly as the lift rose several feet into the air before descending into a massive shaft. The shaft was a dark blue colour with white lights along It's sides. Fifty feet…one hundred feet.

_Man this lift goes down far_ Eve thought.

Then, the lift began to slow down. As it slowed down, Eve saw that she was in another room. It had the same coloured walls and floors with the markings engraved in them. It also had the same two pillars, only this time they were not holding up the ceiling. However, at the right wall there was a large door.

The elevator stopped and locked itself into place. Eve got off the elevator and walked towards the door. It was a hexagon shape, much like those in the mountain region around the control room. It opened as she approached it. Eve walked through the doorway.

Eve found herself on a platform being held up by several pillars around the sides of a large room. There were two panels sticking up out of the floor several feet in front of Eve near the edge of the platform. Like all the others Eve had seen, there was a holographic switch hovering between them. Further down the room was another platform with another door, that had red lights on it meaning it was locked, and another control panel. There was another hexagon shaped door on the lower left wall, that was connected to the floor. Underneath the platform, on the other side of the room, was another hexagon shaped door. However, this one also had red lights on it, meaning it was locked.

Eve looked down at the floor. It was about a fifteen foot jump from the platform to the floor. This was pretty much the only way out of this room. Eve breathed in and jumped down onto the floor. Luckily, the impact was not absorbed into her feet, which were being protected by her boots. Eve breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to the door. It opened as she approached it.

Eve was revealed with a square shaped corridor. It had cream coloured walls that seemed to light up the way. Eve looked left, then right. She gasped.

There were dead Covenant lying on the floor. A Grunt and a Jackal. Blue blood was splattered over the floor and walls of this part of the corridor and the left turning. By the looks of it, these two Covenant soldiers had been surprise attacked. Eve thought it was probably the unknown hostiles she had heard on Victor 933's radio. Eve clasped a hand over her mouth and nose to stop herself from throwing up by the stench of the dead Covenant's bodies. Eve stepped over the dead Covenant soldiers, one of her boots hitting the blood as it touched the floor. Eve then walked down the next part of the corridor and turned left again. She stopped next to a hexagon shaped door. It opened to allow Eve to pass into the next room.

Eve stepped into the next room and looked around. This room was smaller than the first room she had entered in this part of the structure. It's walls were a dark grey colour. There was a large cube shaped object in the middle of the room that stretched up from the floor to the ceiling. There was shattered glass on the floor around so it must have had glass on It's sides before it was smashed. Above Eve were four walkways that went into an almost four-way intersection way, except they had to go around the massive cube shaped object. These four walkways then joined onto one big walkway that ran around the sides of the room. There were two more hexagon shaped doors in the room as well. One on the left wall to allow access to the walkway and one underneath the big walkway on the left wall of the room.

Eve scanned the room. It was not just the cube shaped object that was a mess. There was light blue blood splattered all over the floor. This mostly came from a dead Covenant Grunt lying in the corner of the room. Eve began to get anxious about this place. She had not come across these new hostiles before but she was probably bound to soon. With this many dead Covenant, the number of hostiles must be large.

Eve walked over to the lower left wall door. It opened as she approached it. Eve found herself in another square shaped corridor. Eve walked right down the first section of the corridor, turned left into the second and then left again into the third. She walked through another hexagon shaped door that opened to allow her pass into the next room.

Eve was in another room much like the first she had entered when she came into this part of the structure. It had two control panels on two platforms at both ends of the room, two hexagon shaped doors also at both ends, and there was another hexagon shaped door on the wall opposite the one Eve was at. The only differences about this room from the first was that the two platforms were now connected by two walkways, one either side of the room, and there was a third hexagon shaped door on right wall of the room underneath the right platform.

Eve walked towards the door at the right end of the room. It opened as she approached it. To her surprise, when she entered the next square shaped corridor, there were no dead Covenant. Eve walked right down the first section of the corridor, then turned left into the next section and then turned left again into the third section. She walked another hexagon shaped door.

The room she was in now was a real mess. There were scorch marks across the floor and walls, light blue blood was splattered over the floor, two Grunts were lying dead in the corner of the room and a small fire was raging at the top left end of the room, where part of a walkway had collapsed onto some huge cube-shaped object.

"What the hell happened here?" Eve asked herself as she stepped into the room.

Eve walked towards the collapsed walkway. As she did, she passed another of the large cube shaped objects in the room. Like the last one, the glass had been shattered and the sides of the objects were covered with blast and scorch marks. It was obvious there had been a battle here, but was it between the Covenant and the captain's squad? Or the Covenant and the new hostiles?

Eve climbed onto the walkway. She walked up the broken part of the walkway, which joined to the section that ran along the wall. Eve walked along the walkway and stopped outside another hexagon shaped door. It opened to allow her to pass.

Eve was again revealed with another square shaped corridor. Only this time, there was a lot of light blue blood across the walls and floor, along with four dead Grunts. Eve clasped a hand over her mouth, to stop herself from throwing up, and walked over the dead Grunt's bodies into the next section of the corridor. She passed a torn open hexagon shaped door that led into a small square shaped room. Inside the room were two dead Jackals and three Grunts.

Eve shuddered and walked on into the next section of the corridor and through the hexagon shape door into another room.

This room was exactly the same as the first room she had entered in this part of the structure. However, at the other end of the room, on the other platform, the hexagon shaped door was torn open. Eve wanted to get over there. But the problem was; how?

Eve looked around. There were no walkways leading to the other platform. And she could not jump down and find another way onto the other platform. That would take forever. There had to be another way.

Then, Eve remembered the control panels she had seen. She looked at the edge of the platform she was on. There it was. The control panel with the holographic switch hovering between it. Eve walked up to the control panel and rested a hand on it.

At once, a loud whirring sound was heard. Then, a purple haze began to form in the air between the two platforms. After a few seconds, it became an energy bridge, much like the one she had activated when she arrived on Halo. Eve walked across the bridge to the other platform. She then walked through the open doorway into the next room.

This room was a wide rectangular shape. In the middle of the room, and taking up most of the floor space, was a large rectangular shaped object that stretched up to the ceiling. On the wall behind Eve was a massive glass window. On the wall on the other side of the rectangular object was another glass window. Eve walked left to go around the rectangular shaped object. Maybe it would lead somewhere.

Then, Eve saw something on the floor behind the edge of the rectangular shaped object. As she got closer, she saw it a leg. Eve almost ran forward. She gasped. It was a marine. Eve ran up to the marine, knelt down, placing her battle rifle on the floor, and rested his body on her legs. She placed two fingers on his pulse. He was dead. Judging by the coldness of his body, which Eve could feel through the suit going into her fingers, he had been dead for some time. Eve laid the marine back down on the floor. It was then Eve recognized that there was a path heading down a slope corridor to a small landing. Eve got up, picked up her battle rifle and walked down to the landing. She saw another ahead of her lead up to the other side of the massive rectangular shaped object in the room above. However, there was also a small path that led to a hexagon shaped door to her left.

Eve raised her battle rifle and stepped towards the door. She saw a UNSC control pad attached to the door. The UNSC soldiers gave it the nickname the 'Spoofer'. This device could unlock, lock, hack into the most protected devices anywhere and even set off any timed explosive devices within a seventy mile radius. Not many of these were left after the Covenant destroyed the main technological research facilities on Reach, Takra and Tura II.

Eve lowered her battle rifle as she reached the door. She was about to place a hand on the control pad when…

_HIIIIIISSSSSS_

Eve shot round, her battle rifle raised. She heard the noise come from behind. But there was nothing there. Perhaps she was imagining it. Yes, probably over exaggerating herself because of these new hostiles that were said to be here. Eve was now even starting to think maybe these new hostiles were a new type of Covenant race, or thinking that there were no unknown hostiles at all and maybe the dead Covenant was just caused by an accident or friendly fire.

Eve placed her hand on the control pad. A beep was heard. The door opened.

"AH!" Eve gasped loudly.

As the door opened, a dead UNSC marine had been lying against it on the other side. The door opening caused the body to fall forward into Eve's arms as she caught it. Eve stared at the soldier. He had several wounds along his side and chest and parts of his uniform was torn. Eve turned round so she was facing the landing again. She raised her battle rifle and stepped backwards into the room. The door closed when Eve was several feet into the room. Eve set the soldier's body on the floor and turned round. The room was big with two ramps in the middle of it and four pillars along It's sides, two on the left and two on the right. The ramps had glass tops. There were several hexagon shaped doors scattered around the room as well. Two on the left wall, two on the right wall, the one behind Eve and the in the same place as the door behind Eve but at the other end of the room.

Eve raised her battle rifle and walked forward. Around the floor was blood. Human blood. There were no bodies, except for the one she had just set down onto the floor. There were, however, two MA5B assault rifles and a pistol lying on the floor. As Eve walked left slightly towards one of the doors, that had been torn open, she saw something else lying on the floor as well. It was about the size of a fingernail and was a square shape. Eve recognized it as a small camcorder. The UNSC camcorders were specially made to fit into soldier's helmets or suits. They would then project a holographic screen that would play anything on the camcorder. The device also allowed the person using it to fast forward, rewind, pause etc. at any time by just thinking it, but only when the camcorder was in contact with the soldier's suit or helmet.

Eve picked up the camcorder. It probably had a message on it. Eve did not know where to put it. The dead soldier's suit was no use because of the tears in his uniform and he had no helmet and there were no places she could put the camcorder in her suit. Then, she remembered how she placed the data cord on her shoulder and it sank into her suit. Maybe it would work with the camcorder. Couldn't hurt to try.

Eve placed the camcorder on her shoulder. Sure enough, it sank into her suit and disappeared. Eve then thought 'Play'. At once, a small beam of light shot out of her shoulder and grew into a wide square shaped screen. A set of numbers and words appeared on the screen.

**Open record view (2552. 4. 13. 21: 20: 42L). **

The screen changed into a view of the pelican's resting area. The camcorder must have been in the soldier's helmet because the picture was moving about, probably the soldier looking round the resting area. Across from the soldier was John and four other UNSC troops. On the soldier's side of the resting area were two other soldiers. Rock music was playing in the background. 'Alpha Centari' was the name of the song. It was made about seven years ago.

_"Moe, will you turn that thing off!" one of the soldiers across from the soldier filming moaned._

_"No way," came the filming soldier's reply. "This is my personal item and I'll do what I want with it!"_

_"I thought you said you would let one of us use it." another of the soldier's sitting across from the soldier filming._

_"Yeah, well I changed my mind," the soldier replied. "I'm not lending this out. Not after the time I lent out my other camcorder to you guys and you gave it back to me looking like it went through a battle cruiser's engine."_

_"Hey! I did say that wasn't my fault!" the soldier sitting on the other side of the resting area argued back. "I did tell you that some jackass left heater in the cafeteria on. I didn't know it was on anyway!"_

_"Ah, can it you guys!" John barked. The arguing ceased immediately. "You guys are worse than the UNSC top commanders!" _

_"Hey, sarge?" one of the soldiers sitting on the filming soldier's side asked. "Why do we have to listen to this old crap?"_

_"Watch your mouth, son!" John said. "This music is the only thing reminding us of what we're fighting to protect,"_

_"Hey, if the Covenant want to destroy this particular part of my service in the UNSC army, that's fine by me," the soldier replied_

_"It'd be fine by me if they destroyed Moe's damn camcorder!" one of the soldier's sitting on John's side of the pelican's resting area said._

The screen shifted back face the soldier's sitting across from the soldier filming.

_"Screw you," the soldier said._

_"LZ looks clear. I'm bringing us down," _

The screen turned right to face the pelican's entrance. The swamp was visible outside. The ground got closer, meaning the pelican was descending towards it.

_"Go! Go! Go!" John's voice ordered._

Eve thought 'Fast Forward' On the screen, FFW appeared. After a few seconds, Eve thought 'Play'. The FFW on the screen disappeared and was replaced by Play.

The scene was now in the small valley outside the structure. The light on the building's roof was just visible.

_"Stay close, Moe," came John's voice._

The soldier filming moved through some bushes. He came out of them and stopped outside the ramp that led into the structure. The rest of the squad stopped outside the entrance to the structure as well.

_"Thomson, move in up," John ordered._

_A marine armed with a battle rifle ran forward into the structure, stopping at the bottom of the ramp._

_"All clear?" John inquired._

_"Yes, sir," the soldier replied._

_"Alright squad. Let's head inside." John ordered. "The captain and his squad should be here soon. Moe, you take point."_

_"Sir," the soldier filming replied._

Eve thought 'Fast Forward'. FFW appeared on the screen again. After about ten seconds, Eve thought 'Play'. The FFW on the screen disappeared and was again replaced by the Play.

The scene was now in the room with the damaged walkway Eve had passed earlier on. The soldier filming ran forward up to John and another soldier who were standing over the carcass of a minor Elite.

_"But It's just weird," the soldier said. "I mean look at him…" _the soldier prodded the Elite's side with his foot._ "Something scrambled the insides."_

_"What's that? Plasma scarring?" John asked._

_"Yeah… I dunno," the soldier replied. "Maybe there was an accident. You know, friendly fire or something?"_

_"What do we have here, sergeant?" a voice asked._

A man in a high ranking UNSC uniform walked up to the group around the carcass. Eve gasped. It was captain McCrea. It had been a while since she had last seen him.

_"Looks like a Covenant patrol, sir," John answered. "Badass Elites. All of 'em KIA," _

_"Real pretty," McCrea said sarcastically, looking down at the carcass of the Elite. "Friend of yours?" he asked the soldier._

_"Nah, sir," the soldier replied, sounding slightly apprehensive. "We just met,"_

Eve fast forwarded the filming again. After a few seconds, she stopped the fast forwarding and thought 'Play'. The screen was now outside the door to this room. The soldier filming was up against the wall, looking at the squad. There were two marines at the front, then John and captain McCrea and then another marine guarding the squad's rear.

_"Alright, let's get this door open," McCrea said._

_"I'll try, sir," the marine at the front replied. "But it looks like the Covenant worked pretty hard to lock it down," _

_"Use your Spoofer," McCrea ordered._

_"Yes, sir," the marine replied._

The marine took out a Spoofer, the one that was on the door, from his pocket and placed it on the door. He then rested his hand on the top of the device. At once, a beep was heard and the door opened.

The marine who opened the door ran inside, the soldier filming right behind him. The squad spread out across the room. Captain McCrea took out a pistol and loaded a clip into it.

_"I've got a really bad feeling about this," a marine said._

_"Thomson, you always got a bad feeling about something-"_

Suddenly, John's radio crackled to life. There was static for a second or two, then a voice came out of the radio.

_"Captain! Sarge! Can you hear me?" John took the radio out of his pocket and held it up near his lips._

_"What's going on, corporal?" John asked._

The voice replied in a panicked tone.

_"We've got contact! Lot's of 'em! There not Covenant!…They're tearing through us!… What the!… OOOH! NOOO! KZK…" _

The radio signal was cut off_. _Eve could have sworn that just as the radio signal cut off, she could hear more of the hissing noises, she heard out in the landing, in the background.

_"Corporal?" John half-shouted. "Do you copy, over?" _

There was no response.

_"Thomson, get up to Second Squad's position and find out what the hell is going on?" John ordered._

_"But, si-!" the soldier protested._

_"I don't have time for your lip, soldier!" John barked at the marine. "I gave you an order!"_

_"Sarge!" the marine shouted, getting John's attention. "Listen!"_

The squad remained quiet. The hissing sound erupted in the room. It got louder with every passing second.

_"What the hell is that?" one of the marines asked._

_"Where's that coming from, Thomson?" John asked the marine._

_"I don't know, sarge," the marine replied._

_"Over there!" McCrea shouted, pointing over to the door on the left wall closest to the room's entrance._

The scene shifted over to the left wall. The door closest to the room's entrance was expanding outwards. After about five seconds, the door broke apart, revealing a small room behind the door.

Out of the room came a swarm of small creatures. These were not Covenant. No. They had bodies shaped like skulls, massive flab parts sticking out of the back of their heads like hats and they had many small tentacles sticking out of the bottom of their body. The creatures made a loud hissing noise as they approached the squad.

_"ARGH! AHHH! GET IF OFF ME!" a voice shouted._

The scene shifted over to the edge of the room. On the floor, a marine was struggling to get one of the creatures off him. The creature's tentacles had dug deep into his skin, causing blood to seep out of the wounds. Another marine ran over to his comrade and pulled the creature off, only to have the same fate happen to him.

A barrage of gunfire exploded in the room. The squad were firing their weapons at the creatures. When they were hit, the creatures exploded like balloons but they just kept coming.

Within a matter of seconds, the squad was surrounded by these creatures.

_"Sergeant, we're surrounded!" McCrea said._

_"Moe, fire your weapon!" John ordered._

The scene looked downwards at the soldier's hands as he struggled to pull out his gun. Just as he did, he accidentally spilled some bullets over the floor. The soldier scrambled down to pick them up.

_"Moe, look out!" John shouted._

The scene moved back up to face the squad. One of the creatures jumped onto the camcorder's view. The soldier screamed, but it was muffled by the creature. Then, aloud thud was heard. Gunfire continued on and the hissing grew louder.

The screen turned to black. In red letters across the screen appeared;

**Unexpected halt (WND/INCAP/KIA?)**

**End record view (2552. 4. 13. 22: 50: 03L)**

The screen disappeared. Eve gasped and quickly squeezed her shoulder. When the camcorder appeared on her shoulder, she brushed it off onto the floor. She had to get out of here. She had to find a way out of this structure and get help!

_HIIIIISSSSS_

Oh no! The hissing sound! It was back! And that means those creatures will be soon. Suddenly, Eve heard a whirring noise behind her. She quickly shot round to see the hexagon shaped door closing.

"NO!" Eve yelled as she ran towards the door.

It was too late. The door had closed. Eve pounded on the door to try and break it down. This did not work. She tried prying it open with her hands. This did not work either.

"C'mon!" Eve growled. "Open up!"

_HIIIIISSSSS_

The hissing sound was back. Only this time, it was louder. Eve began to panic and she tried prying the doors open again.

"Oh, c'mon! Please!" she whimpered as she tried to open the door.

The door was not budging one inch. If Eve did not get it open, she would be overwhelmed and killed by those creatures.

BOOM! Eve gasped. That boom was the same noise she had heard when she was listening to the recording left behind by the soldier. BOOM! There it was again. Eve shot round. At the other end of the room, the door had expanded outwards about four feet from where it should be. Then…

BOOM! The door burst open. Eve 's worst fears came true. Out of the small room came a massive swarm of the creatures. As soon as they burst out of the room, they began heading straight for Eve.

Eve fired a burst from her battle rifle at the creatures. She hit one and it exploded like a balloon. The explosion of one of these creatures caused most of the others to explode. Within a few seconds, there were only a few of the creatures left out of the entire swarm. Eve fired at them, killing the remaining creatures.

Eve quickly loaded another clip into her battle rifle. She didn't care how easy they were to kill this time. All she wanted to do was get out of this room and out of the structure as fast as she could before more of these creatures arrived.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Another door expanded and broke apart. Another swarm of creatures spilled out into the room. Eve fired another burst from her battle rifle at the creatures. One exploded and killed the rest of the swarm. However, another swarm spilled out into the room. Eve fired another burst of ammo at the creatures, killing them.

BOOM! Another door was expanding. Eve quickly loaded another clip into her battle rifle. BOOM! BOOM! The door broke apart. A wall of the creatures fell onto the floor into the room. Eve fired at them, killing one and causing the rest to expand as if they were swelling up and then, having being inflated too much, exploding. After a few seconds, everything went quiet. That's the last of them. All the doors in the room, except for the entrance and exit door, had all broken apart. Now she just had to find a way out of her-.

BOOM! Oh, no. The entrance door was expanding. They were outside as well! BOOM! Eve ran backwards onto the first ramp. BOOM! The door exploded, sending another wave of the creatures into the room. Eve fired a burst from her battle file at the creatures. The creatures exploded like balloons. They were all dead within a few seconds. Eve kept her battle rifle raised at the door in case anymore of the creatures were to attack.

A few seconds passed. Nothing happened. Maybe there were no more creatures. Eve stepped off the ramp towards the door. Suddenly, a low growl was heard. It was coming directly from the landing outside the room. Then, a tall creature ran into the room. Eve felt sick just looking at the creature.

The creature stood about eight and a half feet tall on two legs. It had yellowish/brownish skin with the legs bending backwards at the knees. The torso of the creature looked incredibly strong. It's arms looked like all the skin had been ripped off because they were an orange/dark red colour. The fingers on the hands were tentacles that were wriggling about as if they were searching the space around the creature for food. The head of the creature seemed to be joined onto the torso. The face of the creature had some kind of sensory stalks sticking out of it and there was a flabby part sticking out of the back of the head like a hat.

The creature charged towards Eve. Eve screamed and, trying to run backwards, fell over onto the ramp's side. The creature raised a hand and brought it down towards Eve. Eve rolled sideways, narrowly missing the creature's hand as it slammed into the side of the ramp. Eve fired a burst of ammo from her battle rifle at the creature's arm. The arm, literally, shot off the entire body of the creature onto the floor. The creature let out a growl and threw a kick at Eve, which she dodged by diving sideways.

Eve quickly fired another burst of ammo at the creature's head. The creature landed with a thud on the floor, dead. Eve breathed a sigh of relief. She had survived one of these creatures, but more of them would appear if she did not flee the room.

Eve stood up and ran out of the room back onto the landing. She ran up the left path. Then, she heard a growl behind her. Eve shot round and gasped. The creature she had just killed was standing on the landing, looking up at her. Then, the creature charged towards Eve. Eve reacted quickly by firing a burst of ammo from her battle rifle at the creature's chest. This must have finally killed the creature because it fell to the floor and did not rise again, even after several moments which Eve had her gun aimed at it to make sure it was dead.

When she had killed the creature, Eve ran into the room where the paths led down to the landing started. She ran up to the door on the left side, which she had entered through and walked through it as it opened for her.

Eve was back in the room with the energy bridge, which was still activated. However, she was not alone. Several high pitched screams and screeches drew Eve's attention to the edge of the platform. On the floor below her, several Grunts and Jackals were running away from a massive swarm of the two legged creatures. The creatures were running towards the Covenant squad, smacking their tentacles into their prey. The Covenant squad fired on the creatures, hitting one of them repeatedly and shooting off the flabby part of It's head and both arms. The creature fell onto the floor, dead completely. Eve's eyes widened. She had found a way to kill the creatures in one go.

Suddenly, one of the creatures spotted her. Before Eve could react, the creature jumped up towards her. Eve screamed as the massive tentacles whipped through the air at Eve, narrowly missing her by just a mere inch. Great! Not only did the creatures have some temporary protection against gunfire, but now they had the ability to jump high distances to attack prey high up.

Eve quickly ran across the energy bridge. Below her, the blood flowed and the screams of the dying filled the air as the creatures overwhelmed the Covenant squad. Finally, Eve reached the other platform. She wasted no time in resting a hand on the control panel. The energy bridge, immediately, disappeared. Eve then turned and ran back towards the hexagon shaped door, which opened as she approached it.

Eve ran into the square shaped corridor, turned left, then right and then right again. The hexagon shaped door on this side of the corridor opened as she approached it. She ran through it onto the room's walkway.

Eve's eyes widened in horror. Below her on the room's floor, there were more of the creatures moving about. There were both the ones that made up the swarms and ones that stood on two legs. Eve breathed in quietly and scanned the walls around the walkway. There were no other doors to get out of the room on the walkways. The only other way out of the room was through the door underneath the walkways. This was going to be tough.

Eve breathed in again. She crept over to the edge of the walkway and jumped down onto the floor. The noise of her hitting the floor attracted the attention of the swarm creatures. Eve fired a burst from her battle rifle at a massive group of them, killing one and causing the rest to explode as if they had been over swelled. Eve then ran towards the door, having to duck and dive the tentacles of one of the creatures.

Eve reached the door, causing to open. Eve sprinted into the square shaped corridor, the creatures right behind her. Eve ran down the first section of the corridor, turned left into the next section and then left again into the third section. She ran through the gap where the hexagon shaped door once stood, the remains were lying on the floor.

Eve was back into another of the platform rooms. The door she had used to enter this room earlier was now locked. The only other door she could get to was the one on the wall to her right. Luckily, for the moment, there were no creatures in the room. Eve heard a loud growl come from the corridor behind her. She ran towards the door to her right. It opened as she approached it.

Eve ran right down the first section of the square shaped corridor. She turned left into the next section, passing another broken apart hexagon shaped door, and then left again into the third section of the corridor. The door there opened to allow her to pass.

Eve was in another room with silver coloured walls and floors. There was another massive cube shaped object, that stretched up to the ceiling, in the middle of the room. Going around the middle of the cube shaped object were more walkways in a four-way intersection-like way. However, this room was also infested with more of the creatures. As soon as Eve ran into the room, they spotted her and charged towards her.

Eve had only seconds to react. She frantically looked round the room. There was a large square shaped metal object below the edge of one of the walkways above. Eve ran towards the object and climbed onto it. One of the two legged creatures dived for Eve. It's tentacles were aiming straight for her foot. However, Eve grabbed hold of the walkway's ledge and pulled herself up onto it, narrowly missing the tentacles of the creature. A loud thud indicated the creature had hit the side of the object.

Eve ran across the walkways towards a door at the other end of the room. She ran around the cube shaped object. The door was only a few metres away. It looked like she would get out of here.

Suddenly, one of the creatures jumped up in front of the door. Eve screeched to a halt. The creature let out a growl and charged towards her. Eve pulled her battle rifle to shoot the creature, but it launched itself on top of her. Eve's battle rifle went flying across the walkway and landed just a few inches from the edge.

The creature raised a fist above Eve. It was going to smash her face in. Eve grabbed the creature by the flabby part of It's head and threw a punch at the creature's face. The creature got up and staggered backwards. Eve saw her chance and dived for her battle rifle. As she grabbed it, the creature ran towards her again. Eve rolled over and fired two bursts of ammo at the creature, shooting off It's arms. It dropped to the walkway floor, dead. Eve got up and fired another burst at the creature, just to make sure it was dead.

Suddenly, two thuds were heard behind Eve. She turned to see two more of the creatures running towards her. Eve turned and ran towards the hexagon shaped door. It opened as she approached it. She ran through the three sections of the square shaped corridor into the room on the other side. She was back in the room she entered when she arrived at this part of the structure, only she was on the platform opposite the one she entered the room on earlier. She had to find a way across to the other platform. She remembered the control panel. It was still working. Eve ran up to the control panel and rested a hand on the holographic screen. The purple energy bridge began to form. Within a few seconds, there was a path from the platform Eve was on to the platform that led to freedom from this abomination. Eve ran across the energy bridge. However, when she turned to turn off the energy bridge, she saw five of the creatures running across after her. Eve slammed her hand on the holographic screen. The bridge was not turning off! It must be broken. Eve would have to worry about that later. She ran through the torn open hexagon shaped door into the room with the lift.

There were more of the creatures in this room. There was another kind of two legged creatures in this room. They were smaller than the first Eve had fought with tentacles on their hands, yellowish/brownish skin, weird growths all over their bodies and a mutated looking head. The only difference between the smaller kind of the two legged creatures and the bigger of the two legged creatures was that the smaller of the two looked more human than the other.

Suddenly, one of the three small two legged creatures charged towards Eve. When it was a few feet away, it brought It's hand back and slashed It's tentacles across Eve's suit, throwing her to the floor. Eve's holographic meter appeared above her wrist. The level was in the yellow zone. That one hit knocked her shield's protection level down to half It's strength. If the creature hit Eve again, her shield would be disabled and then it could kill her.

Eve swiped her leg across the floor and smashed into the creature's leg. The creature fell sideways and smacked It's head on the floor. Eve saw her chance. She got up and ran towards the lift. However, when she was a few metres from her ticket out of this hell hole, another of the creatures jumped in front of her. Luckily, Eve skidded sideways and ran round one of the pillars; the creatures ran after her.

Eve ran out from behind the pillar. Just ten metres ahead of her was the control panel. She ran towards it. The creatures chased after her. Eve was panicking. She had to escape this structure. She had to get out of here. The tentacles of one of the creatures flew out at Eve, wrapping round her arm. Eve continued running, but the tentacles were dragging her back towards the creatures like the tongue of a massive beast wrapping round It's victim and was now dragging it towards the mouth to be chewed up and torn to pieces.

NO! Eve was not going to be these creatures' dinner. She grabbed hold of the tentacle wrapped round her arm and, using all her strength, pulled the creature towards her. The creature was pulled towards Eve so quickly that it actually flew over her head and landed on the floor with a painful thud.

With the tentacle off her, Eve ran towards the control panel. She reached her hand out towards the control panel. Her hand slammed down on the switch. The lift's locking mechanisms were heard unlocking themselves. Eve jumped onto the lift, with seconds to spare as the creatures were about to overwhelm her. Luckily, the lift ascended upwards away from the creatures. In a matter of seconds, they were out of sight.

Eve collapsed onto the lift's floor. That was one close call she would never forget. But those creatures had captured captain McCrea. They were probably holding him somewhere. That did not matter now. All that mattered at the moment was that Eve needed to get out of the structure and call for evac.

As the lift rose upwards towards the structure's entrance room, her ear radio crackled to life.

_"This is Echo 419. Eve? Is that you? I lost your signal when you disappeared inside the structure. What the hell is going on down there? I'm tracking movement all over the place!"_

Eve's elevator reached the round floor. The lift jolted again as it locked itself into place. Eve stepped off the platform. In front of her was a squad of nine marines.

"Oh, Eve," one of them said, running up to her. "Thank God It's you. We've been stuck out here for hours! After we lost contact with the captain's squad, we went to rescue him and then these…things. They ambushed us and drove us out into the jungle. We decided to flee in here to set up a base of operations and wait for evac. Now that you're here, we can get outta this place."

"Wait, did you say you were attacked by these things?" Eve asked the soldier.

"Yeah," the soldier replied. "They looked like mutants. Oh God, they were horrible. They chased us out into the jungle, but we managed to lose 'em. We've got to get outta here!"

"Damn!" Eve hissed. "They were everywhere down there and now they're out there as well,"

"What do we do?" another marine asked.

The solider was right. What were they to do? These creatures had infested the entire interior of the structure and now they were out in the jungle. The squad could not go outside, for they would be ambushed and trapped by the creatures. But they could not go back into the structure either. If they did, the creatures down there would overwhelm them and kill them. Either way, both paths would lead them to the creatures. Then again, going out into the jungle did not sound too bad. There were probably, hopefully, not many of the creatures out there.

Eve finally came to a decision.

"Lock and load," she ordered. "We're going out into the jungle. We're going to have our fight out way out of here,"

"You mean we're going back out there?" one of the soldiers said, whimpering slightly. "We'll get murdered out there!"

"If we stay here, we'll get murdered!" Eve growled at the soldier. "Look, I want to get out of here as much as you guys do. I am not going to leave any of you behind to get killed by those creatures, so you can either come with me peacefully or I'll drag you out there if I have to,"

The soldier said nothing. Maybe going out into the jungle was not such a bad idea after all. It was better than staying in this structure.

The soldiers reloaded their weapons. They were in for one hell of a fight.

Eve raised her battle rifle and ran out into the jungle; the soldier followed. The rain had stopped now, but it had also left a mark on the jungle. There were several puddles scattered around the ground, each almost a foot deep. The soldiers followed Eve through one big puddle, which looked more like a shallow pond. The water soaked their boots and some managed to slide down their legs onto their feet.

"OVER THERE!" one of the soldiers yelled all of a sudden.

A barrage lit up the jungle. The squad had spotted a large two legged creature running towards them through the trees. The creature was hit multiple times in the head, chest and stomach. The flabby part of It's head was shot off, along with both arms. Finally, the creature fell backwards onto the ground, dead.

"Move up," Eve said.

Then, Eve's ear radio crackled to life.

_"Eve! Oh, good, I can get through to you. Where are you?"_

Eve placed a finger on the radio in her ear.

"We're in the jungle outside the structure," Eve replied. "These hostiles are all over the place. Can you come pick us up?"

_"Affirmative. There's a large tower a few hundred metres from your current position. Find a way to and come down and pick you guys up,"_

"Roger that Echo 419, thanks" Eve said before taking her finger off her ear radio.

"Alright," she announced to the squad. "We need to get to a large tower. There, Echo 419 will come pick us up,"

"Or what's left of us," one of the marines said.

_HIIIIISSSS_

That hissing noise was very loud this time. It seemed to come from everywhere. Eve frantically looked around and saw a path going through a small valley about fifty metres ahead.

"Over there," she said, pointing over at the valley.

"AAAHHH!" one of the marines yelled.

A swarm of the creatures had come through the trees and attached themselves to the marine. Another of the marines ran up to his comrade and tried to pull the creatures off him.

"Hold still! Hold still!" the marine shouted as he pulled one of the creatures off his friend.

"MORE OF 'EM!" another marine yelled, pointing into the trees.

Eve looked where the marine was pointing. He was right. A massive group of the two legged creatures, both big and small ones, were charging towards the squad. Eve looked back at the two marines under attack by the swarm creatures. Just as she did, the helping marine fell to the floor dead and one of the creatures jumped off his body and began moving towards the squad.

"RUN!" Eve screamed.

The squad ran through the trees towards the valley. Eve was determined to get herself and these soldiers out of this swamp. The valley would probably lead to the tower Echo 419 had set for them to go to. The squad was getting closer to the valley. Just another thirty metres… twenty five…twenty. Almost there! Suddenly, Eve screeched to a halt. The squad did the same. They were on the edge of small lake the rain had created. It was about two feet deep.

"C'mon," one of the marines said.

"Wait," Eve blurted out, holding an arm out to stop the soldier. "What if more of those creatures are hiding in there?"

"I'm taking the chance!" the soldier replied.

Before Eve could stop him, the soldier pushed past her arm and ran out into the lake. The water soaked his legs and went into his boots. Suddenly, when he was half-way across the lake, a tentacle shot up out of the water and wrapped round his arm before pulling him underwater. The soldier screamed and splattered as he tried to stay above the water, dropping his gun in the confusion.

Eve wanted to run out there and save him. But what if there were more of the creatures hiding in the lake?

_ROOOAAAAARRR!_

A loud roar filled the air. Eve looked behind to see the massive group of creatures running towards them. It was now either run out into the lake and risk being attacked by the creatures out there, or end up getting surrounded and killed by the creatures behind the squad and out in the lake.

Eve came to a decision.

"C'mon," she ordered.

Eve ran out into the lake; the remaining soldiers followed. Eve first wanted to save the first soldier, who had the tentacle wrapped round his neck and was pulling him under. If she could save him, it would be one more life saved.

Eve reached the soldier and fired a burst of ammo at the water. A loud screech, which sounded partly gargled, was heard and a small two legged creature shot up from under the water. The rest of the squad then fired on the creature, killing it.

"C'mon, keep moving!" Eve ordered.

"What about the rest of 'em?" one of the marines shouted, pointing at the creatures as they were about to pass the last few trees to the lake.

"I got 'em," another marine replied.

The marine took out a fragmentation grenade. He pulled off the pin and threw it at the side of the lake. The squad then turned and ran as the creatures ran into the lake.

BOOM! An explosion lit up the jungle. Eve managed to quickly turn her head to see about ten of the creatures' bodies go flying through the air and land in the lake. The squad ran into the valley. When they were about twenty metres into it, they stopped to catch their breath.

"I think we lost 'em," one of the marines said as he got his breath back.

_ROOOOAAAAARRR!_

The roar sound filled the air. It seemed to come from both ends of the valley and from the two hills that formed the valley. Eve quickly reloaded another clip into her battle rifle.

"Where's that coming from?" one of the marines asked, whimpering.

"Everywhere!" Eve replied, also whimpering slightly.

Suddenly, a swarm of the small creatures appeared from both hills and headed straight for the squad. Then, at the other end of the valley, a massive group of the two legged creatures, both tall and small, charged towards the squad. Eve frantically looked round and saw the two waves of the creatures coming. They were boxed in.

"Fire!" Eve shouted.

The squad fired a barrage at the creatures. The small creatures were hit and exploded like balloons, but more of them would just keep appearing from behind the hills. Eve fired at the wave of creatures running towards the squad. She managed to fully kill three of them but one of the small creatures made a jump at her suit. However, it burst on impact. Eve was surprised, until her holographic meter appeared above her wrist again, showing the level was near the bottom of the green zone.

"AAAHH!" a marine yelled.

Two of the small creatures had attached themselves onto his chest. The marine tried to pull them off, but another creature jumped onto his face, engulfing it and causing the marine to fall to the floor, dead.

Eve fired a burst from her battle rifle at the two legged creatures, who were now just several metres away. She fully killed two more and shot off the arms of another. However, she looked behind her and saw that there were only four members of the squad left. Most of those that had been with her when the squad made it into the valley were lying dead on the ground. The small creatures were causing blood to seep out of the wounds. In fact, it looked like they were eating the marines. It was horrible to look at, let alone think about.

Eve snapped out of her trance and saw another creature run towards her. She threw a punch at the creature, hitting it in the face. Then she whacked it round the head with her battle rifle and pushed it to the ground before finishing the creature off with a deadly kick to the face.

The way to the other end of the valley was clear.

"C'mon. The way's clear!" Eve shouted to the four remaining soldier of the squad.

Eve led the squad down the valley towards the other end. Behind them, the roars and hisses of the creatures filed the air as they gave chase. Every few seconds, Eve would catch a glimpse of more creatures, both two legged and the small ones, coming out from behind the tops of the hills. They wanted to kill the squad. Eve began to panic. These four soldier's lives were at risk. She would survive longer than they would because she had the body suit and was quick with reacting to an enemy presence. They had very little or no armour and were not as quick at reacting to enemies as she was. Eve had to protect them and find the tower. She would survive longer than they would, but not for long if she stayed in the jungle.

Finally, Eve and the squad reached the other end of the valley. In front of them was a wide open space. Eve scanned the area. The ground was filled with a half-foot deep lake. There were several trees scattered round the open space. Then, Eve's heart leaped. About two hundred feet away was a large cylindrical shaped structure, that rose about sixty feet up, with four support beams sticking out the bottom and were attached to the ground. The top of the structure was almost twice as wide as the main body of the structure. It was flat and had several spires sticking out of the side of the structure's top and were aimed up at the sky like guns ready to fire at anything that flew overhead.

_ROOOAAAARRRR!_

Eve snapped out of her trance as the roar filled the air. Eve looked behind her back into the valley. She lost her breath. A massive wave of the creatures, both two legged and the small creatures, were heading straight for them. It was time to run.

"Follow me," she said to the four soldiers.

Eve ran out into the open area towards the structure; the soldiers followed. The distance between the squad and the structure decreased rapidly. They were almost free. Just another one hundred feet and they would be out of the jungle. Now ninety…eighty…seventy.

Suddenly, two of the big two legged creatures jumped down from the trees to the ground several metres ahead of the squad. The squad screeched to a halt. Just as she did, the two creatures charged towards her. The squad fired a barrage at the two creatures. The two monsters were hit in the chest, head and arms. Both arms on both of the creatures were shot off, along with their heads' flabby parts. The two creatures fell backwards onto the ground, dead.

The squad ran onwards to the structure. They reached it within a few seconds. Eve placed a finger on the radio in her ear.

"Echo 419. We're at the tower. Requesting immediate pickup." Eve said.

"Negative, Eve. I cannot find a clearing in the trees. They're more dense here than anywhere else in this part of the jungle. Just hold on a little longer. Eve? Eve. EVE!"

Echo 419 had lost contact with Eve. The last she heard was Eve gasp, gunfire and one of the soldiers shout.

Eve had gasped and the soldier had shouted because when the wave of the creatures was only a few metres from the squad's position, several light blue portals opened in the sir above the squad. Then, just seconds later, strange robotic machines hovered out of the portals. They did notice the humans but they also noticed the creatures. As soon as the robots spotted the creatures, they fired a strange beam at the creatures. When the beam hit the creatures, it seemed to blow off their arms of flabby parts of their heads or just fully kill them on impact.

The robots were nothing like Eve of the soldiers had seen before. They had a main body section in the shape of a diamond and three large spear-like parts on the front of the robot's main body. One on the top and two at the sides. They went into a pincer-like way at the front of the machine. Also at the front, and several feet below the pincers, was a shining blue light. It seemed to be the supplier for the beam the robots were firing at the creatures, as it was right next to the silo the beam came from, because as soon as a beam would fire, it would change to red, then yellow and then back to blue in the blink of an eye.

Eve and the soldiers stood rooted to the spot, wide-eyed as the robots took on the creatures.

"What the hell are these things?" one of the soldiers said, aghast.

"I don't know," Eve replied.

"Let's help 'em out," another soldier said.

The four remaining soldiers ran towards the battle between the creatures and the robots. They fired at the creatures, which would wound them, then the robots would fire a beam at the creatures the soldiers had fired on, which would kill them.

Eve reloaded another clip into her battle rifle. She was about to run out to join her squad in the battle when…

"What the…?" Eve gasped.

A series of bright gold circles began to from around Eve. They seemed to appear out of thin air and were engulfing parts of her body as if it were eating away at her. More of them were appearing. Within a few seconds, Eve was fully enveloped by the gold light.

All of a sudden, Eve landed on her feet on the tower's roof. She could see the carnage between the robots and the soldiers against the creatures unfolding below. She had to get down there and help them.

Suddenly, Eve heard something move on the roof. It could be the creatures since they could jump high. Eve whipped round and fired a burst of ammo across the surface of the tower's roof. She waited several seconds. Nothing happened. Maybe it was a stray bullet or laser.

BANG! Eve fired again. This time, at one of the spires. She must have hit something explosive on or inside the spire because as soon the bullets hit the object, it exploded. Eve saw something, or someone, get thrown to the floor. Eve quickly reloaded another clip into her battle rifle and stepped towards whatever fell to the floor.

"Who are you?" she shouted as she neared the thing.

The thing scrambled backwards towards the edge of the roof as Eve neared it, breathing heavily. As Eve got closer, she saw the thing was actually a human. It was a man. He was about six foot tall and was wearing a strange bodysuit that was dark blue/black, with the strange markings dotted around his suit, and some strange flat soled boots which were actually part of the bodysuit. The man looked up into Eve's eyes and Eve looked into his. The man had short straight brown hair and grey/hazel coloured eyes. He had a faint scar on the side of his neck and a just visible bulge-like thing near his hand, which was not covered by the suit.

Eve lowered her weapon slightly. This man looked harmless. Like he wouldn't even hurt a fly. She held up a hand to help him up but the man just stared at it as if waiting for something to happen.

BOOM! An explosion in the carnage below lit up the jungle. The man scrambled over to the side of the roof and looked down. He gasped when he saw the creatures.

Eve walked up to the man. As she got closer, she could hear him whispering something. She could not make it out, but it sounded like…_Inferi Redivivus?_

"The _Inferi Redivivus_ has escaped," the man whispered.

"What?" Eve asked.

The man shot round to face her. He looked at Eve. He was still breathing heavily from where Eve almost killed him.

"Are you a monitor?" the man asked.

Eve raised an eyebrow. Did he just call her a monitor? What the hell was a monitor and who was this man?

"A what?" Eve asked.

"Are they your sentinels?" the man asked, pointing down at the squad.

"Wait, stop!" Eve half-shouted, silencing the man. "Monitors? Sentinels? What the hell are you talking about and who are you?"

"I'm 343 Guilty Spark," the man answered. "Well, that's my monitor name. My real name is Wally. I'm one of the monitors of Installation 04."

"What, you mean this tower?" Eve asked.

"No, this ring," Wally replied. "I didn't know we had a female monitor or monitor-like sentinels,"

"I'm not a monitor," Eve said. "I'm a human. And those soldiers, or sentinels as you call them, down there, they are humans as well. And so are you."

"I can't be a human," Wally replied, shaking his head slightly. "I don't even know what a human is,"

"You must know," Eve blurted out. "I mean, how can you not know you are human when you are a human?"

"You must be mistaken," Wally said. "But, I have to get to Juggernaut and tell him what's happened," "Who?" Eve asked.

"Juggernaut," Wally replied. "He's the only other monitor on this ring. Or was until now,"

"What are those things, then?" Eve asked as she looked down at the creatures.

"_Inferi Redivivus_," Wally answered. "Or there is a nickname for them. The Flood. Come. We have to go now,"

Before Eve could ask where they were going, the bright gold light quickly reappeared an enveloped both her and Wally. Then, the lights disappeared and Wally and Eve were gone.

_"Eve! Where are you! I've lost your signal! Eve! EVE!"_


	22. The Library

Halo had many large structures and instillations scattered around It's surface. One major structure was called 'The Library'. It was called the library because it was where something ancient was being held, but it was also where many of the creatures, now known as the Flood, were stored for study by the beings who created Halo.

Some time had passed since the battle in the jungle with the Flood. Eve and Wally had just disappeared into the golden light. The soldiers had no idea where she was. They looked all around the area where the tower was after the last of the Flood had been killed or driven off and the robots had disappeared through the blue portals. Echo 419 came to pick them up and take them back to Alpha base to warn the survivors there of Eve's sudden disappearance. Some had thought she had been taken by the creatures. Others thought she had been teleported to another part of the ring by the robots. Wherever she was, they had to find her and rescue her.

The Library was probably the largest structure on the ring. It had may floors that seemed to have endless corridors and passageways. There were three main floors that were near the middle of the structure. The top, and structure's min middle floor, contained the ancient object.

On the edge of the lowest middle floor, there was almost no light. The only lights came from the interior of ventilation systems that seemed to run through the structure. There was a massive cylindrical pillar near the end walls of one enormous chamber on the structure's, lowest middle floor. Several large cube shaped objects were dotted around the sides of the pillar. There was one small path that led through the pillar to the other side of it but what was on the other side of the pillar was hard to tell.

Suddenly, a bright gold light lit up the edge of the room. Then, as quickly as it came, it disappeared. However, there was a difference about the room this time. Wally and Eve were standing near a section of the pillar that went across from the pillar to the wall. It was too high to climb up so, as usual, they would have to take the long way round the pillar.

"Where are we?" Eve asked, looking round the enormous chamber.

"We're in the library," Wally answered. "This is where I told Juggernaut I would meet him. He says he will lead us to the ancient object. I think it's called the Index."

"Do you know your way around this structure?" Eve asked Wally.

"Yes," Wally replied. "This place is…well mine, Juggernauts', the sentinels' and the Flood's dwelling. Anyway, we better keep moving."

Wally walked forward towards a just visible turning around the pillar. The floor's colour and what was on It's surface, most likely the markings again, was hard to tell because of the darkness. Eve followed Wally towards the turning. The air was cold that Eve could actually feel it against her skin through her suit. She shivered slightly.

Wally and Eve had reached the turning. They were about to continue when Wally stopped all of a sudden. He sniffed the air.

"What is it?" Eve asked him.

"That stench," Wally replied. "Can't you smell it?"

Eve sniffed the air as well. Wally was right. She could smell something horrible. It smelt like rotting corpses. Eve turned round and the smell got stronger. Then, she went wide-eyed.

Heading straight for her and Wally was a massive swarm of the small creatures. Wally turned after he saw Eve facing the opposite direction and spotted them as well. Immediately, Wally, ran behind Eve and clutched her shoulders. Eve did not know why he was doing this, but she shook that thought out of her mind and raised her battle rifle at the creatures.

BANG! A burst of ammo exploded in the chamber. Eve had fired at the creatures. The ones she hit exploded like balloons, causing the others near them to explode as well. When the small explosions ended only a few of the creatures were left, which Eve killed by firing at them with her battle rifle.

Eve looked over her shoulder to see Wally shaking slightly with his eyes closed and whimpering quietly.

"It's okay, they're dead," Eve said to him, trying to calm him down.

Wally opened his eyes to see she was right. The creatures were gone. He let go of Eve's shoulders and stood up to his full height,

"Thank you," he said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I am really scared of the Infection Forms,"

"Infection Forms?" Eve repeated.

"Yes," Wally said, nodding. "That kind of the Flood are called Infection forms. That is how they spread. I fear them like in my worst nightmares,"

_ROOOAAAARR!_

The roar filled the chamber. Eve and Wally looked in the direction they were heading to see two tall two legged creatures running towards them. However, this time the two creatures were armed with weapons. One was carrying an MA5B assault rifle, the other was carrying a Covenant plasma rifle. When they were about tone hundred feet from Eve, the fired on her and Wally.

However, Eve and Wally only had to do little dodging. This was probably a new thing to the Flood, carrying human and Covenant weaponry. But even though most of the shots missed, some almost or did hit their targets. Eve was hit twice, but her suit's shield saved her. Wally was lucky and managed to avoid all the shots fired at him. Eve fired at both of the two creatures, hitting and fully killing them.

"What kind of Flood are those?" Eve asked Wally.

"Their Combat Forms," Wally answered. "They are made when an infection form attaches itself to a host. It then mutates the host and turns it into a Flood. We better hurry before more of them arrive."

Eve nodded and ran with Wally towards, what Eve could now see, two large cube shaped objects. However, as they go closer to the cube shaped objects, Eve could see several large square shaped openings on the walls that lead up into the walls. Eve could also just see a strange gold/yellow liquid dripping from the vent to the opening's floor. More Flood would be after them soon.

Wally and Eve reached the two cube shaped objects. Wally then pointed over to a small corridor that went through the massive pillar. The two ran down the corridor. When they emerged, they found themselves on the edge of a large star-like shaped opening that led far down through the floor. Eve did not know if it was endless because there was a bright gold light shining from the opening.

Wally scanned the area around them. There were surrounded by a ten metre high wall of the end of the pillar that ran around the star shaped opening in a circle shape way. He saw another corridor lead through the wall. That would most likely lead to another path that would take them to the way out of this chamber.

"This way," Wally said, taking Eve by the arm.

Wally and Eve ran towards the other corridor. When they reached it, they saw another cube shaped object at the other end. The two ran down the corridor. When they emerged from it, Wally looked right and saw another path leading further into the chamber.

"Alright," he said. "If we go this way, there should be a door that will take us out of her- AHHH!"

Without warning, a tall combat form had jumped down from the top of the cube shaped object in front of the two. Wally fell to the floor and scrambled backwards as the combat form stepped towards him. Wally found himself against the wall of the corridor. He was trapped.

BANG! A burst of ammo erupted in the room. The combat form fell backwards onto the floor, dead. Eve reloaded another clip into her battle rifle.

"Thank you," Wally said as he stood up.

"You must have something to defend yourself with," Eve said to him.

"No," Wally replied. "I don't have any weapons to defend myself against the Flood,"

"We better find you one," Eve said.

The two ran right down the path, passing more openings on the walls. As they ran down the path further, they saw part of the massive pillar's wall go across the path about one hundred metres up ahead. Now, they had to find another way out of the chamber.

"There," Wally said, pointing up at the wall near the pillar's wall.

There was a massive bronze coloured door lit up by some sort of light built into it. The bronze door had a large holographic switch hovering half-way up it. The two ran towards the door. Then, when the two had reached the door, Wally flew up into the air and stopped in front of the switch. He rested a hand on the door. Eve watched the door, expecting it to open, but it did not.

"The security doors had sealed automatically," Wally shouted down to Eve. "I'll see if I can access the override to open them up,"

Wally flew towards a small opening near the top of the wall and flew into it, disappearing into the ventilation system.

Eve was now alone. She turned and raised her battle rifle at the way she and Wally had just come.

_ROOOAAAARRRR!_

The roar filled the chamber. Eve tightened her finger on the trigger. Then, something waddled out of one of the openings onto the floor. Eve aimed her rifle at it. The creature waddled towards her and came into the light being given off by the door.

The creature was Flood. And it was huge. Not in strength, but in size. It had no face and nor arms. Instead, the upper part of It's body looked like one big growth that had grown off the creature's legs. The legs were short and looked like elephant legs. There were two small tentacles hanging off the front of the creature, probably sensory tentacles to grab victims.

The creature waddled towards Eve quickly. Despite It's size, the creature was able to cover quite a big distance in just a few seconds. Eve fired at the creature. It fell to the floor, dead. Then, it began to expand quickly as if it were being inflated by an invisible pump. Then, when the creature's main body was the size of a fireplace, the creature exploded.

Eve covered her face with her arm as bits of flesh were thrown all over the floor. After a few seconds, she slowly moved her arm. Eve gasped. The creature she had just killed was actually carrying a swarm of five infection forms. Eve fired another burst from her battle rifle at the swarm, hitting one and causing the rest to explode.

"Now I know why they expand so quickly," Eve muttered to herself.

Suddenly, two more big shapes jumped out of another opening. Eve saw them and fired on them. The two shapes returned fire, meaning they were the tall combat forms. Eve's suit was hit. Her holographic meter appeared above her wrist. It showed the level near the bottom of the green zone. Eve quickly fired back at the two shapes. Both were hit and fell backwards onto the floor. Then, one got back up and charged towards Eve. As it came closer, the light revealed it was a tall combat form. The combat form had lost the flabby part of It's head but it was still alive. The creature was waving It's arms in the air as if waving a lasso. Then, it whacked Eve across the chest, sending her to the floor. Her battle rifle flew out of her hands and landed next to the door.

The creature went to whack Eve again, but Eve was too quick for it and the combat form missed. Eve then grabbed hold of the combat form's arm and, using all her strength, pulled it to the floor. She then let go of the arm and ran over to her battle rifle. She grabbed it and fired at the combat form, hitting it and fully killing it.

Then, Eve heard a humming sound. It sounded like it was coming from above. Eve looked up at the door and saw Wally floating towards it. He was humming his own musical tune.

Wally rested a hand on the holographic switch. The sound of large metal moving was heard. The door then rose up from the floor and went into the ceiling.

"Stay close," Wally said to Eve as he floated back down to the floor. "This portal door is the first of ten."

Wally and Eve walked through the doorway. In front of them was a wide path between two walls with strange parts of the shaped like ramps sticking out of the right side. There were openings along the left side. At the end of the path were two sky blue coloured large square shaped windows.

The two walked down the path towards the sky blue shaped windows at the end. Eve looked along both sides of the path. This place, this ring, was clearly beyond imagination. It was filled with It's own secrets, both amazement and horror. Eve had never come across anything like this before, even when she was fighting the Covenant. All she knew was that this ring was built for some unknown purpose and that there were two monitors who were to manage the ring and keep the Flood contained inside it.

The two were halfway down the path. On the floor in front of them was a fifteen foot wide glass window that blocked the way into some large trench.

"We should link up with some sentinels as we go further on," Wally said to Eve as they walked across the glass window. "They'll be able to escort part of the way to the ancient object."

_ROOOOAAAARRR!_

The two shot round. The roar came from behind them. Not even a second passed when a group of five combat forms jumped out of one of the openings and charged towards the two. Wally and Eve ran across the rest of the glass window. Then, Eve screeched to a halt and turned round again.

Eve reloaded another clip into her battle rifle.

"What are you waiting for?" Wally half-shouted at Eve.

"This," Eve replied.

When the combat forms reached the floor glass window, Eve fired on it. The glass shattered. The combat forms fell down the new opening in the floor into the trench.

"Nice work," Wally said to Eve.

"Thanks," Eve replied.

Suddenly, four more shapes ran out of the opening and charged towards the two. Wally and Eve knew that these Flood combat forms could just easily jump over the trench to their side. The two turned and ran towards the blue windows. As they got closer, Eve could see the shapes of infection forms moving about on the other side of the glass. Why were they in there? Wally grabbed Eve's arm and ran right with her down another path. Up ahead was another wall with a small opening near the top of it. Then, Eve saw another path in front of another section of the wall, that stuck out like a bulge, lead right. The two ran down this path and found themselves in another pathway with more of the light blue windows along the right side of the wall. The two ran left down this pathway, as the right lead to another wall. They stopped near the end of the pathway.

"I think we have lost them," Wally said, skidding to a halt.

"Don't get your hopes up too high," Eve said to Wally. "They'll be more of them soon. Which way do we go?"

"This way," Wally replied.

Wally ran down towards the wall at the end of the left path; Eve followed. He turned left into another pathway with large openings along the left wall and more of the large ramp-like parts of the wall along the right wall.

Wally ran down towards another light blue window at the end of this pathway; Eve followed. The two could hear banging noises coming from the openings, meaning that more Flood were coming down them. They did not dare look back, no matter what it was that was coming out of the ventilation system.

"We're almost there," Wally said.

"Where are we going?" Eve asked Wally.

She got her answer when the two came out of the pathway and turned left again. Up ahead was a large diamond shaped opening that led into a corridor. There were more of the sentinel robots hovering high in the air above the floor. As the two approached them, the sentinels fired their beams behind them. Eve managed to quickly glance over her shoulder to see a wave of Flood combat forms. Some were armed with Covenant weapons and UNSC weapons. The rest had only their tentacle hands to fight with.

"These sentinels will aid you against the Flood," Wally said to Eve as he began to fly into the air.

"Where are you going?" Eve asked Wally.

"I have to make sure the elevator through there is working," Wally replied. "I'll meet up with you on the second floor."

Wally flew up towards an opening near the top of the wall at the end of the pathway to the diamond shaped door. He flew into the opening and disappeared. Eve looked back at the battle and saw most of the Flood dead. The sentinels could handle this.

Eve ran down the corridor to an enormous chamber at the other end. When Eve reached the chamber, she saw a massive circular platform on the floor. She stepped onto it. Suddenly, the platform jolted slightly. Eve looked round and saw that it was slowly rising into the air. Eve looked up and saw a small part of another corridor sticking out into the chamber. After a few moments, the lift reached the corridor. Eve stepped off the lift and ran down the corridor.

Eve found herself in another pathway with more of the blue windows along the right side. The pathway carried on to a wall about one hundred feet ahead. There was another path that led right about half-way down the pathway Eve was in.

Suddenly, two thuds behind Eve made her jump. Eve turned to see two of the infection form carrying Flood waddling towards her. Eve fired a burst from her battle rifle at the two Flood. The two creatures exploded into thousands of tiny bits of flesh. However, a swarm of ten infection forms had come out of the two carriers and were heading straight for Eve, determined to kill her and make her one of the Flood.

Eve turned and ran away from the infection forms as fast as she could. She ran right down the path, which was another pathway with openings and ramp-like things on the walls. Eve was most likely going to outrun the infection forms, but more Flood would appear soon so she had to keep running.

Suddenly, Eve screeched to a halt about half-way down the pathway. Twenty feet in front of her on the left wall was an opening. Standing next to that opening were two small combat forms. They were both armed with Covenant plasma pistols. As soon as they spotted Eve, they ran towards Eve and fired on her.

Eve dived sideways behind a wall ramp, narrowly missing one of the blasts. She quickly put another clip into her battle rifle. She then rose up from behind the ramp and fired two bursts of ammo at the two combat forms. Both were hit and fell to the ground. Eve then fired at them again, just to make sure they did not get back up again.

Eve ran out from behind the ramp down the pathway. As she neared the blue windows at the end, she could again see the outlines of the Flood infection forms moving about inside. As Eve ran right, she hit someone, causing her and the person to fall to the floor.

Eve groaned as she got up. As she rubbed the back of her head with her hand, she saw that she ran into Wally.

"Wally," Eve said as she got up and helped Wally up.

"Thank you," Wally replied. "Sorry about that, I wasn't looking where I was going,"

"That's okay," Eve told him. "Are we near this ancient thing we're looking for?"

"Not yet," Wally said. "There's another blast door further on, but the Flood have been messing around the controls and I won't be able to open it. You'll have to go underneath it,"

Before Eve could ask how, Wally turned and ran back the way he had come. Eve sighed and followed. The two ran down the pathway of the infection form holding area, then turned into a small corridor and then turned left and ran down another pathway with the sky blue windows, the infection forms moving around behind them.

Wally turned left again into another pathway with openings and ramps along both sides of the walls. However, at the end of this corridor was another large bronze door with a holographic switch hovering half-way up into the air in front of it. As the two headed towards it, Eve could see the drop of some large trench about thirty feet ahead.

Suddenly, a tall combat form jumped out of the trench onto the floor in front of the two. Wally yelled and fell backwards onto the floor. Eve fired a burst from her battle rifle at the combat form, shooting off It's flabby head part and sending it back into the trench. A thud was heard to indicate that the combat form had hit the trench floor.

"I do hate it when they do that," Wally said as he got up.

"Wally, you really need to learn how to defend yourself against the Flood," Eve said to him.

"I'll meet you on the other side," Wally replied.

Wally flew up into the air and headed towards the top of the wall next to the door. He flew into another opening and disappeared.

Eve sighed. There was something strange about Wally. Something he was not telling her. Then again, she had met him when there was a battle going on between these sentinel robots and the Flood in the jungle. Either way, Wally was actually a strange person, or monitor as he called himself, to be with. He knew nothing of his own race and he called Eve a monitor. There was something strange about this ring and Eve needed to find it out.

Eve jumped down into the trench, narrowly missing the dead combat form's body. She looked ahead and saw a small corridor that led underneath the floor towards the wall. Luckily, there was a turning that led right at the end of the corridor. It had several thin pillars along both sides and was lit up by a lime green colour from the walls. Eve ran down the corridor and, when she reached the end of it, turned right into the next corridor, which was longer and was not lit up in the middle. Maybe because it went underneath the door.

Eve ran down this corridor towards the end. Suddenly, she screeched to a halt. Ahead of her, a swarm of probably fifty, maybe more, infection forms came out from behind the pillars near the end of this corridor and headed straight for Eve. Eve fired a burst from her battle rifle at the swarm, hitting one of the infection forms and causing it, along with most of the swarm, to explode. Only three survived the exploding, which Eve finished off.

When the swarm had been destroyed, Eve ran down to the end of this corridor, then turned right into another. Up ahead was a ramp that led up to the surface. Eve smiled. She had reached the other side of the door. Now she just had to find Wally, hopefully by not running into him again.

Eve ran towards the ramp. As she got closer to it, she could see the sides of the trench so this ramp led to the surface floor. Suddenly, Eve skidded to a halt once more. Another tall combat form had jumped down from the floor into the trench in front of Eve. The combat form made a swipe at Eve with It's tentacle hands. Luckily, Eve ducked the attack and whacked the combat form in the leg with her battle rifle, sending it to the floor. Eve quickly ran over the combat form and up the ramp. The door was to her right now. To her left was another pathway that led down to another blue window at the end. Suddenly, Eve heard a growl behind her. She shot round to see the combat form walking towards her, most likely wanting to kill her after sending it to the floor with the blow on It's leg. Eve raised her battle rifle at the combat form. She pulled the trigger.

There was a click. Eve gasped. The battle rifle had run out. What was worse, she was out of ammo. Eve dropped the battle rifle and stepped backwards. One of the ramps from the wall behind her stopped her from going back any further. Eve closed her eyes and got ready for the tentacle hands to hit her. Suddenly, there was a roar. Eve opened her eye to see the combat form lying dead on the floor. A whirring sound made her look up. A sentinel had flown over just in time to kill the combat form. Eve smiled and ran down the pathway towards the window at the end. She saw three more sentinels as she reached the blue window. They were flying right down another path towards a massive silver door, so Eve decided to follow them.

As Eve and the sentinels reached the door, the sound of large metal moving was heard. Then, the massive silver door broke in two. One side went into the right wall, the other went into the left. Wally was standing in the doorway when it opened fully.

"Good, you made it," he said as Eve ran up to him. "We're about half-way across the second floor. Let's keep moving,"

Wally and Eve walked into the room on the other side of the door. Eve gasped. The room was huge, probably bigger than Halo's control centre. It had massive silver coloured walls and floors, tall and wide pillars, that ran along the edge of some humungous hole, with ramps sticking out of them and several cube shaped objects dotted around it. What also startled Eve was this light green/light blue light that shot up from the hole into some sort of silo on the ceiling.

"The energy field above that silo contains the Index," Wally said as he pointed up at the silo. "We must get up there,"

"Is there a way out of this chamber?" Eve asked Wally as she scanned the area.

"Yes," Wally replied. "The exit is on the other side of the hole,"

Wally ran right towards the path between the wall and the pillars; Eve and the sentinels followed. As they followed Wally, Eve saw a group of five more sentinels fly out from the hole towards the group. They reached them just as they were about to pass the first pillar.

As the group passed the first pillar, the sentinels fired at two ramps several metres ahead. One was coming out of the wall to the right, the other was coming out of the pillar. The sentinels were firing at a group of Flood, who were armed with UNSC and Covenant weapons. Wally gasped and flew up into the air and hid a sentinel. The Flood fired on the sentinels. One was hit by a burst of ammo from a Flood combat form holding a battle rifle. It fell to the floor and exploded into flames. Another sentinel fired at the Flood combat form, hitting it and killing it. The battle rifle it was holding was sent flying through the air and landed on the floor at Eve's feet.

"I can't believe I'm carrying the same weapon," Eve said as she picked up the battle rifle.

Eve fired a barrage from her weapon at the Flood. She managed to hit a carrier, which exploded and released a swarm of infection forms. The sentinels fired on them, killing them. Eve then fired at the last small combat form, shooting off part of It's head, fully killing it.

"It's all clear," Eve said to Wally.

Wally breathed a sigh of relief and flew over the ramps and turned left slightly. Eve and the sentinels followed him. As the group were half-way down the next path, they saw movement up ahead in the darkness, as the area they were heading to had no light at all despite the light from the beam in the middle of the chamber. The sentinels fired on the figures, who returned fire. The figures then ran out towards the group. They were Flood. There were five combat forms, both big and small, two carriers and about ten infection forms.

Eve fired on the Flood swarm as they charged towards the group. She managed to kill one combat form before she needed to reload. As she loaded another clip into her battle rifle, a infection form jumped on Eve's suit. It exploded, but Eve's holographic meter appeared above her wrist. The level was now in the yellow zone. Eve ignored the danger sign and put the next clip into her battle rifle. She resumed firing at the Flood, killing another combat form and causing a carrier to explode, throwing the infection forms around the floor. The sentinels fired on them ad Eve fired a burst of ammo at the last combat form. The combat form's arms were shot off and the creature fell backwards onto the floor, dead.

When the last infection form was killed, Wally, who had been hiding behind a sentinel again, flew out over the ramps and turned left slightly again. The sentinels and Eve followed. They followed Wally out onto a wide open space of floor. Up ahead, they could see another large silver shaped door. Eve smiled as she looked at the door. That was their ticket out of here.

"EVE! WATCH OUT!" Wally yelled.

Eve snapped out her trance and managed to dodge a rocket. The missile continued on behind her and exploded on the floor. Eve looked up and saw several tall combat forms charging towards the group. The sentinels quickly reacted by firing their beams at the Flood. The flood, however, retaliated by returning fire at the sentinels. The combat form with the rocket fired another shot at the sentinels. Eve began to panic as the one Wally was hiding behind was hit. The explosion obliterated the sentinel and threw Wally to the floor.

"Wally!" Eve shouted.

Eve rushed over to Wally, firing at the combat form with the rocket launcher. The combat form fell to the floor, dropping the weapon. Eve knelt down next to Wally when she reached him.

"Argh!" Wally hissed as he grabbed his shoulder.

Eve saw that the part of the suit around the shoulder was torn and blood began to seep from the wound. Then, Eve went wide-eyed as the wound seemed to re-heal itself and the suit covered the shoulder again.

"That is one amazing suit," Eve said to Wally. "I'm surprised that hurt you,"

"Trust me, I've been through worse," Wally replied as he got up.

Another explosion on the floor caused the two to dive sideways. Another combat form had picked up the rocket launcher and fired a shot at the two. It was lucky the shot hit the floor or the two would have been killed. Eve fired at the combat form, fully killing it with several hits to the head and chest. Eve sighed and lowered her battle rifle.

"Thank God they are gone," Eve said.

"Do not get too excited," Wally replied. "They will be more of them with rockets,"

Wally ran across the open space towards the door. Eve and the sentinels followed him. Several metres in front of the door were two large cube shaped objects. As the group approached them, three carrier forms waddled out from behind the objects. The sentinels fired on the carrier forms, causing them to explode. Fifteen infection forms were sent flying through the air and landed on the floor. The sentinels and Eve quickly fired on them, killing them.

Wally flew back up into the air towards the holographic switch. He rested a hand on the switch and waited for something to happen. Seconds passed. Nothing happened. Wally let out a frustrated sigh and floated back down to Eve, who had run over to the door.

"The Flood have disabled the security systems for this door," Wally said to Eve. "I'll go repair them and meet you back here,"

Eve nodded. Wally flew up into the air and headed out towards the beam of light from the hole. When he was near the beam of light, Wally flew down into the hole and disappeared from sight. Then, Eve saw the sentinels do the same. She was now alone. Eve quickly reloaded another clip into her battle rifle. She knew more Flood would appear soon.

She was right. Just mere seconds after the last sentinel disappeared down the hole, a swarm of infection forms fell down from an opening on the ceiling above the cube shaped objects. Eve fired a burst of ammo at the swarm. She hit one of the infection forms and caused it to explode, which resulted in most of the other infection forms exploding. When the exploding had ceased, Eve fired at the remaining four infection forms, killing them as well.

Then, the sound of large metal moving filled the chamber. It was coming from behind Eve. She turned to see the door breaking in two and both bits going into the walls. Eve ran forward into the pathway on the other side of the door. Again, she was in another corridor with openings on one wall and ramps coming out of another. As usual, at the end were the sky blue windows which contained the infection forms. Hopefully, they would not expand or break open like the doors had done when Eve was in the structure in the jungle.

Eve ran down the pathway towards the blue sky windows at the end. Suddenly, she heard a loud growl. Eve skidded to a halt as she just missed falling into another trench. However, this one did not go into a corridor. It just ended at a wall with lights going down the middle of it. The growl came from a combat form that was standing in the trench. Before Eve could react, it jumped up and whacked Eve round the chest, sending her to the floor. Her battle rifle flew through the air and landed on the floor next to an opening.

Eve scrambled backwards as the combat form stood over her. It looked down at her, determined to kill her. It's tentacle hands were deadly. As Eve's holographic meter appeared above her wrist, it showed the level in the bottom of the yellow zone. If the combat form hit her again, it would kill her instantly.

Then, Eve saw someone standing several metres behind the combat form. It looked like…Wally!

"Wally! Help!" Eve shouted to him.

Wally did not move. A scared expression spread across his face. He wanted to help Eve, but his fear of the Flood was too overwhelming for him to rescue her. However, Eve's shout not only attracted Wally's attention. It also caused the combat form to turn and spot Wally.

The combat form let out a growl and charged towards Wally. Wally stood rooted to the spot, frozen with fear. His heart was beating like made against his chest. He was so scared he thought he might pass out from the fear.

BANG! A burst of ammo exploded in the pathway. The combat form was sent flying onto the ground, dead. It's right arm and flabby part of It's head had been shot off. Eve was standing near the trench entrance, her fingers on the battle rifle's trigger. She did not look at all happy.

Eve stomped over to Wally. She halted in front of him. Wally could feel the anger radiating off her like a heater. She glared at him, absolutely furious.

"Wally, why didn't you kill it?" Eve shouted at Wally.

Wally did not reply. He just flinched as Eve shouted at him.

"I was in trouble and so were you!" Eve shouted at Wally again. "We both could have been killed!"

"I'm sorry," Wally whispered quietly, looking down at the ground.

Eve sighed.

"Just learn how to face your fears, Wally," Eve said to him before walking past him into the next pathway.

Wally felt guilt sweep over him. Eve was right. He had almost gotten himself and her killed because he did not face his fear when the combat form went to attack Eve. He had to face his fears eventually, but the problem was how? If he did, he probably end up freaking out and getting killed. Wally sighed and walked after Eve.

The two walked down the pathway with the blue windows. They turned right into another pathway with blue sky windows on the right wall. Up ahead was another large diamond opening that led into a corridor. Most likely to another lift that would take Eve up to the third floor. As the two approached it, however, three carrier forms waddled out of the corridor, followed by a swarm of six infection forms.

Wally gasped and stepped back away from the Flood as they spotted the two and headed straight for them. Eve fired a burst of ammo at one of the carriers. The carrier exploded, killing the swarm of infection forms inside and around it and throwing the other two carrier forms through the air. They landed several metres behind Wally. They exploded and threw their infection form swarms into the pathway.

Wally gasped and fell to the floor as the infection forms headed straight for the two. Eve pulled Wally up and ran towards the corridor. Wally flew up into the air and flew into an opening near the top of the wall next to the diamond shaped opening, disappearing into the ventilation system.

Eve ran down the corridor towards the lift. As she ran into the massive room, two carrier forms ambled towards her from both sides. Eve got onto the platform and ran into the middle of it.

The lift's locking mechanisms unlocked themselves and the lift began to ascend into the air. Just in the nick of time as one of the carrier forms fell over and exploded, throwing It's infection forms into the room to join the swarm from the previous two as they headed into the room. Within a few seconds, the lift was well above thirty feet into the air, way out of reach of the infection forms.

Eve breathed a sigh of relief as the lift headed towards the part of the corridor, that stuck out to provide as some sort of platform for travellers on the lift, about twenty feet up. As the lift neared It's destination, Eve was thinking about Wally. She had taken it quite personally that he did not help her when the combat form almost killed her back in the pathway. She did regret it slightly that she had shouted at him. He was scared to death of the Flood. Like he said, they were his worst nightmare. Then again, he was going to have to learn to face his fears eventually or he would end up being afraid for the rest of his life. Not that there was anything wrong with being afraid. She had been afraid of losing her friends in the war with the Covenant and she knew loads of people who were afraid of one or many things. But, they would eventually have to face their fears, no matter how much they hated it.

A sudden jolt snapped Eve out of her thinking. The lift had reached the path. Eve stepped off the lift and walked down the corridor into the pathway at the other end. She was in one that led into another pathway with openings and ramps on both walls. Eve ran down this pathway. As she got closer to the end, she could not only see the blue sky windows at the end, she could also see two pillars going up to the ceiling.

_HIIIIISSSSSS_

Eve gasped and skidded to a halt. The hiss came from behind her. She shot round to see a massive group of combat forms armed with Covenant and UNSC weapons. Eve quickly fired on them, killing two armed with Covenant plasma pistols. However, one armed with a battle rifle fired on Eve, hitting her suit. Her holographic meter appeared above her wrist to show the level near the middle of the green zone. Eve fired at the rest of the combat forms, killing them as well.

_HIIIIIISSSSSS_

Another wave of combat forms jumped out of the openings. Like the ones before, they were armed with UNSC and Covenant weapons. However, several infection forms came out with them. Eve quickly turned and ran, narrowly missing several needler projectiles as they shot past her and hit one of the windows. Remarkably, it did no damage.

Eve ran down the pathway as fast as she could. She wanted to get as far away from these Flood. As she turned right into the next sky blue window filled pathway, an explosion threw her to the floor. A combat form ran out from behind the wall, a rocket launcher in It's hands. It looked menacing with this Flood combat form holding it. Eve quickly fired at the combat form, shooting off It's arms. The combat form fell backwards onto the floor, dead. However, It's tentacles in the hand around the back of the rocket launcher hit the trigger, causing the weapon to fire another shot. The deadly missile flew towards one of the windows and hit it, shattering the glass. A swarm of twenty infection forms spilled out into the pathway and headed straight for Eve.

Eve scrambled to her feet and fired another burst of ammo at the infection forms. She hit one and caused it, along with about seventeen others infection forms in the swarm, to explode. The last three jumped into the air and landed on Eve's suit. Like the ones before, however, they exploded on impact.

Eve's holographic meter appeared again. The level was in the middle of the yellow zone. Then, the level rose back up to the top and the holographic meter disappeared.

_ROOOAAAARRR!_

Eve shot round. Just as she did, the massive group of Flood combat forms ran out from behind the wall. Eve legged it down the pathway as fast as she could. Behind her, she could hear the growls and hisses and roars of the combat forms as they chased after her. Eve tried to run faster, but her legs were screaming at her not to overdue her running or she would fall over or tire herself out quicker.

Eve ran left into another corridor with openings and ramps coming out of the walls. Up ahead was a massive bronze door. Several metres in front of that door was another trench that led down into the floor. Eve aimed her battle rifle at the trench as she ran towards it. Even though she would normally walked towards something she was unsure about, it would not be a good time if she walked towards a trench when an army of Flood were right behind her.

Eve reached the trench. She quickly looked down into it. There were no Flood, yet. She just had to be thankful that the threat of being surrounded had passed. Now, she just had to got through this tunnel corridor and find out what was on the other side of that door.

Eve jumped down into the trench. She turned left and ran into the corridor. As she turned right into the next part of the tunnel corridor, she saw skidded to a halt. At the end of the corridor was another massive swarm of Flood infection forms. They spotted Eve and headed straight for her. Eve aimed her battle rifle at the swarm.

BANG! A burst of ammo exploded in the corridor. The infection form at the front of the swarm was hit and exploded, causing the rest of the swarm to follow the fist infection form's fate. When the exploding ceased, Eve ran down to the corridor towards the end and then turned right into another small corridor that led to the ramp in another trench. Eve ran up the trench. She found herself in a smaller pathway that was exactly the same as the one on the other side of the bronze door. However, there was another bronze door at the left end of the pathway, that was also locked.

Suddenly, Eve heard a noise from an opening on the wall behind her. She shot round and aimed her battle rifle at it. All of a sudden, Wally fell onto the opening's floor. He groaned as he got up and rubbed the side of his head.

"Oh, It's you," Eve said, lowering her battle rifle.

Wally said nothing as he stepped down from the opening onto the floor. She walked towards the bronze door at the left end of the room and flew up to the holographic switch. He rested a hand on the switch. Nothing happened. He sighed and flew back down to Eve.

"I need to activate this doors security systems," he said to Eve. "Wait here,"

"What if the Flood get in here?" Eve asked Wally.

"You'll be able to fight them off," Wally replied.

Before Eve could say anything more, Wally flew up to another small opening near the top of the room's back wall. He flew inside and disappeared.

Eve sighed as she reloaded her battle rifle. She had really hurt Wally that much. She did shout quite loud at him. Wally was a quiet type of person. It was obvious he did not like being yelled at. Eve could accept that he was afraid of the Flood. She was as well, but Wally feared them so much that he could not even look at one without cringing or walking away quickly. However, he was going to learn how to face his fears and he would do eventually, unless he wanted to stay the way he was for the rest of his life.

As Eve finished loading the clip into her battle rifle, a growl was heard. Eve gasped and shot round. The massive group of combat forms had made it to her end of the long corridor, as Eve could see their feet from where she was. Eve backed away slightly. She did not have the time to run or hide. Even if she did, where was she going to hide. The openings were no use as the Flood would come out of them. The ramps were no good as the Flood would just have to walk round It's side to see her. There was only one thing to do. Stand and fight.

The Flood combat forms spotted Eve and ran up the trench ramp towards her. Eve quickly fired on them. She managed to fully kill three of them. Then, her battle rifle needed reloading. As she went to reload it, a combat form with a plasma rifle in one of his hands ran up to Eve and whacked her with It's tentacle hand.

Eve was sent flying to the floor. Her holographic meter appeared again, showing the level was in the yellow zone. Eve quickly grabbed one of the combat forms' legs and pulled forward. The combat form fell backwards and smacked It's head on the floor. Eve then grabbed It's plasma rifle and fired at the remaining seven combat forms, killing them. She then fired at the one she had pulled to the floor, just to make sure it did not get up and attack her again.

Eve got up and ran towards the door at the left end of the pathway.

_C'mon, Wally_! she thought in an angry way. _Open the door!_

_ROOOAAAARRRR!_

Eve shot round, her plasma rifle raised. A massive group of Flood jumped out of the opening onto the floor. This time, it was not just combat forms. It was infection forms and carrier forms as well. They all headed straight for Eve. The worst of this was that the combat forms were unarmed, meaning they would charge towards her to kill her.

The combat forms sprinted towards Eve. Eve fired a barrage of sky blue blasts at the Flood. She managed to fully kill two combat forms. Then, three combat forms flew through the air and landed on top of her, sending the weapon flying through the air and landing on the floor. One of the carrier forms had fallen over and exploded. Although it killed three combat forms, along with two infection forms, the three combat forms had pinned Eve to the floor when they landed on her. Her plasma rifle flew through the air and landed on the floor near a wall. The infection forms made shuddering hissing noises as they approached Eve. They were determined to kill her and make her one of their own. Eve tried to push the bodies off her, but the threat of the infection forms jumping onto her was so overwhelming that she was panicking herself. It looked like it really was the end for Eve.

Suddenly, a loud noise filled the pathway. Eve quickly looked over her shoulder to see the massive bronze door opening. Just as it opened, four beams shot directly at the Flood, killing the infection forms. They then started hitting the remaining Flood.

With the infection forms gone, Eve could now focus on getting these Flood bodies off her. She pushed her hands against the bodies with all her might. As she pushed them higher off her, she could move her legs again. Finally, Eve pushed the bodies up high enough for her to move herself out from underneath them. She let them go and they hit the ground with a thud.

Eve got up, turned and ran down the pathway towards another massive diamond shaped opening in the wall. No doubt this was leading to another lift. As she reached the opening, Eve took one more look back at the battle going on between the Flood and sentinels. The sentinels were firing at another group of unarmed combat forms, who were jumping up at the sentinels in an effort to whack them out of the air.

Eve ran down the corridor towards the lift at the end. She stepped onto the lift. The lift jolted slightly as it unlocked itself and began to rise towards the path that stuck out from the next corridor up.

Suddenly, Eve heard something land behind her. Whatever it was, it had also landed on the lift. Eve had lost her battle rifle when the Flood pinned her down, but she was going to fight to get to get to this ancient artefact, even if it meant using her fists to fight off any Flood that attack her.

Eve shot round to face the threat, her fists in front of her ready to fight. Only to discover that it was Wally that had landed behind her.

"Oh," Eve said. "Hi,"

"We are near the ancient artefact now," Wally replied. "It's just on the floor we are going up to now,"

Then, there was silence between the two. Neither of them said a word to each other. Finally, Eve broke the silence.

"Wally," she said, walking up to him. "I'm sorry I shouted at you earlier. I did not mean to,"

"I deserved it," Wally whispered quietly, but loud enough for Eve to hear him. "I have not been completely telling the truth. I do have a weapon to defend myself,"

Wally lifted up his arm with the bulge near his hand. At once, the bulge began to shift as a small hole began to open at the front near his hand. Then a set of lights appeared along the side, followed by another small hole that opened on the side of the bulge to show a small diamond shaped object the size of the palm of a hand.

"It's a special weapon me and Juggernaut have to defend ourselves from the Flood," Wally explained to Eve. "I don't use it anymore,"

"Why?" Eve asked him.

"Remember when we were on the first level of this structure when we arrived?" Wally asked Eve, who nodded. "I told you I had horrible nightmares of the Flood. Sometimes those nightmares can make me go violent beyond Juggernaut's control. There was even one night a long time ago I almost killed him with this weapon. I have never used it since because I am scared I will harm myself or somebody else,"

"Wally," Eve said, resting hand on his shoulder. "You will have to face your fears eventually. I admit, I'm scared of them as well, but I have to stand up to them and not let myself get killed. I want you to promise me that you will find the courage to stand up to them,"

"I will," Wally replied.

The bulge on Wally's arm then began to shift again. The hole disappeared and the set of lights turned off. The two jolted slightly, all of a sudden, as the lift stopped on the pathway. They had reached their destination. Now, they just had to get to this ancient artefact.

The two ran off the lift, down the corridor and out into another pathway. The pathway they were in was much like the one they had arrived through earlier on. Instead, this time the pillar was actually a massive wall that stretched from one end of the pathway to the other. Along both sides were openings and ramps in or coming off of the walls.

The two ran right down the pathway. As they neared the middle of the pathway, they could see the edge of another bronze door.

"That's it!" Wally exclaimed. "The artefact is on the other side of that door,"

BOOM! The door exploded, throwing large pieces of it across the pathway into walls or onto the floor. No sooner than a second past before gunfire and smaller explosions were heard coming from the room behind where the door once stood.

Wally and Eve reached the doorway. Eve gasped. The room on the other side of where the door once stood was huge. It was much like the room with the massive hole she and Wally went through earlier on, only this time the green light was coming off some kind of massive platform in the middle of the room. The noises of the battle were coming from two sentinels flying in the air about sixty feet away and a massive swarm of Flood. Not just infection forms, but countless numbers of combat forms and carrier forms. Most of the combat forms were unarmed but that was not going to stop them from fighting.

One of the combat forms jumped up at the sentinels and swung It's tentacle hands at one of them. The sentinel fell to the floor and exploded into a fireball. The other sentinel followed the same fate moments later.

Suddenly, a small combat form spotted Wally and Eve at the doorway. It let out a loud roar and charged towards the two. The roar attracted the attention of the rest of the Flood, who immediately saw the two targets and followed the combat form towards them.

"Give me you laser," Eve said, grabbing the bulge on Wally's arm.

"Eve, stop!" Wally shouted, trying to stop her from ripping it apart as she tried to fire it. "You don't know how to work it!"

"You use it then!" Eve shouted back.

BANG! An explosion several metres in front of the two killed the Flood at the front of the charging swarm. Then, a massive wall of fire flew down from the ceiling and hit the Flood. This caused destruction among the swarm as the carriers exploded and the infection forms exploded and only ended up spreading the fire among the bits of flesh that were sent flying further into the swarm. The Flood combat forms caught in the blaze tried to put it out, but were unsuccessful. They dropped to the floor, dead. The last few remaining infection forms and combat forms quickly scattered and disappeared into the darkness around the room.

Wally and Eve stood there wide-eyed. They had just seen an entire swarm of all kinds of Flood be wiped out in the blink of an eye. Then, a tall man, about six foot seven, flew down onto the floor in front of the two. This person had short jet black hair, scars along his chin and small red mark on the side of his face. The man was wearing the same type of bodysuit than Wally and he also had the same bulge on his suit's left arm.

"Wally, what took you so long?" the man said to Wally.

"I'm…I'm sorry Juggernaut," Wally replied. "I had to make sure Eve got here safely,"

The man looked at Eve. He went wide-eyed and walked up to her.

"A Reclaimer!" he gasped. "I never thought I would see one!"

"A Reclaimer?" Eve asked. "What's a Reclaimer?"

"Someone who is part of an ancient race that will send someone to Halo when the Flood is released," Juggernaut replied. "It is truly an honour. I never thought I would see one of your kind,"

He held up a hand for Eve to shake, which she did.

"Come," Juggernaut said. "We have to get to the Index. I presume Wally has already told you it was here?"

"Yes," Eve answered.

Juggernaut looked at Wally.

"You have finally done something right for once," he said to him before turning and walking back into the room. "Come, Reclaimer. You and I have much work to do if we are to control this outbreak of Flood."

Eve looked at Wally. He was looking down at the floor with a sad look on his face. It was not hard to tell he suffered from this quite often.

"Wait," Eve said, stopping Juggernaut in his tracks. He did not turn to face Eve, though "Wally comes with us as well,"

"Why?" Juggernaut said, laughing slightly. "What has he done to deserve to come with us on this task?"

"He did help me get up to this level," Eve replied. "And he did save my life back in the jungle when the Flood were released."

Juggernaut sighed in an annoyed way. He did not want Wally to come with them, but then again he had saved Eve and he had lead her all the way up here. He even protected her and saved her several times from the Flood.

"Very well," Juggernaut said in a low tone. "He may come,"

Wally looked up at Juggernaut, completely shocked. Juggernaut had never let him do anything like this. He usually thought of Wally as a nuisance. Something that their creators wasted their time on. Wally had grown used to the remarks Juggernaut threw at him. In fact, he even agreed with him most of the time. Why had his creators created Wally when he knew he was a nuisance? That question had stayed with him for his entire life.

Wally shook his thoughts out of his head and followed Eve and Juggernaut, who were already near the platform. As he reached approached the two, Juggernaut stopped next to some small barricade on the edge of the platform. Eve and Wally stopped as well. Juggernaut rested a hand on the barricade.

"Time to activate this lift," he said.

At once, a loud noise filled the chamber. The lift jolted and began to shake. Then, it began to descend down towards a small hole.

"Let us board," Juggernaut said.

He, Eve and Wally stepped onto the platform. Eve and Wally almost fell over several times when they boarded but Juggernaut just stood there as if he had some kind of immunity to this. Like it did not bother him at all. Juggernaut then began walking towards the light shining up from the middle of the platform to the chamber's ceiling. Wally and Eve, who were now more used to the shaking, managed to followed Juggernaut towards the light. As they approached it, Eve could see something small hovering in the middle of the light. Then, Juggernaut stopped outside the light.

"Is that the thing we're looking for?" Eve asked Juggernaut as she and Wally stopped next to Juggernaut.

"Yes," Juggernaut answered. "We have to wait until the lift stops. There is an energy barrier surrounding the Index. It will deactivate when we reach the second floor."

Eve nodded and looked again at the object hovering object in the light. She then looked back at Wally. He was also staring at the object. However, it was with wide eyes, like he had never seen this thing before. His eyes never left the object. Eve was starting to get more suspicious about this place. There was an object here and the fact that Halo was some kind of weapon made her think, what type of weapon?

The lift suddenly jolted again, almost throwing Eve and Wally to the platform's floor. It had stopped on top of the hole in the large chamber Eve and Wally had fought their way through with the sentinels. Juggernaut walked forward into the light. He turned to see Wally and Eve still outside the light.

"Come," he said. "It is completely safe,"

Eve and Wally looked at each other. Eve then just shrugged and walked forward into the light. Wally saw no point in waiting outside the light and did the same. The three then gathered round the object that was hovering in the middle of the light.

The object was cylindrical with eight small cube-like moving parts on It's sides, four on both sides. Every now and then, they would move from one side of the object to the other. There was a long thin green line of light going from the bottom of the object to the top.

"You may now retrieve the Index," Juggernaut said to Eve.

Eve watched the object as the cube-like parts of it moved in a circle from one side of the object to the other. Then, they stopped all of a sudden like something had flicked a switch to turn off a light in a room. Then, the cube parts pushed into the main part of the object so they were almost touching, leaving the green line even thinner than it had been just moments ago. Then, the top of the object rose up. A smaller object came out of big object. It had a thin top and was shaped like a capitol T. There was another thin green line going down the front and the back of the object. Eve picked up the object and examined it. This was the Index? If it was, it was the strangest looking thing Eve had ever seen.

Suddenly, a blue light engulfed the Index and pulled it out of Eve's hand towards Juggernaut, who was beaming the light. when the Index hit Juggernaut's open hand, it disappeared. Most likely into some trans-dimensional pocket of Juggernaut's.

"Protocol requires that I take possession of the Index for time being." Juggernaut said. "Your organic form renders you vulnerable to infection and the Index must not fall into the hands of the Flood. Therefore, we must head to Halo's control centre and activate the installation."

Before Eve could reply, a gold light began to form around her, Wally and Juggernaut. Within a few seconds, it fully engulfed them. Then, as quick as it came, the light disappeared, only so did Wally, Eve and Juggernaut.


	23. The truth

Ten minutes later

Halo's control centre was still. Nothing moved, except for the hologram of the ring hovering several metres above the control panel at the end of the walkway.

The last visitor to this control room was Eve. That was over twelve hours ago. In fact, the UNSC were still looking for Eve. They were even trying to find Halo's control centre, hoping that Eve would have left them a message telling them where she was. The problem was, they could not find it. Mainly because, the Covenant had been harassing Alpha Base for several hours.

Suddenly, three gold lights appeared on the walkway near the control room's door. Then, as quick as they came, the lights disappeared. This time, however, Wally, Eve and Juggernaut were standing on the walkway.

"We are here," Juggernaut said. "Now we can activate Halo's control centre and stop this horrible outbreak."

Juggernaut began walking down the walkway towards the control panel. Eve went to follow him, but paused suddenly. Something was not right. However, this did not go unnoticed by Wally.

"Are you okay?" he asked Eve.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Eve replied. "Just don't feel right about this place. Something here is not right,"

"Is everything alright?" Juggernaut's voice said.

Wally and Eve looked up the walkway to see Juggernaut looking at them.

"Yes, everything is fine," Eve replied.

"Splendid," Juggernaut replied. "Shall we?"

Eve sighed and walked up towards the control panel; Wally followed. When the two reached the control panel, which Juggernaut had already reached, Juggernaut opened his hand. Then, in the blink of an eye, the Index appeared back into his hand.

"Unfortunately, my usefulness to this particular endeavour has come to an end." Juggernaut explained as he handed the Index to Eve. "Protocol does not allow units like me and Wally to perform this task. The last step is for you, reclaimer,"

Eve nodded and looked down at the control panel. There were many slots and switches. Eve did not know which one to put the Index in.

"Which slot does the Index go in?" Eve asked Juggernaut.

"Any will do," Juggernaut answered.

Eve looked across the control panel and picked a random slot. She placed the Index into it.

At once, the Index slid into the slot and disappeared. A loud charging sound filled the room. Several holographic circles began to appear from the top of the control panel. They extended several feet upwards from the control panel. Suddenly, the circles disappeared and the charging sound stopped, like something had flicked a switch.

"Odd," Juggernaut said, confusion in his voice. "That was not supposed to happen."

"Oh, really!"

Suddenly, Juggernaut flew backwards across the walkway. Wally yelled and dived behind Eve, who gasped.

"Auto!" Eve exclaimed.

Now she remembered why there was something wrong. When she came here earlier, she had uploaded Auto into Halo's control centre control panel.

Auto had risen up from the control panel and fired something at Juggernaut. Whatever it was, it must have been powerful it if threw Juggernaut to the walkway's floor that hard. He was breathing heavily and had a look of utmost fury and anger on his face.

"Eve!" he shouted. "I've spent the last thirteen hours stuck inside this control panel while you go an help these two killers!"

"Auto, hold on," Eve replied. "Their friends."

"These two are not allies, Eve," Auto told her. "They are enemies. Do you have any idea what they almost made you do?"

"Yes," Eve replied. "Activating Halo's defences to destroy the Flood,"

"A construct in the control centre!" Juggernaut shouted, stomping up next to Eve. "That is absolutely unacceptable!"

"Well try and remove me!" Auto shouted back at Juggernaut.

"How dare you!" Juggernaut hissed. "I will purge you at once!"

"You sure that's a good idea," Auto taunted.

The Index appeared in his hand. Then, it disappeared. Most likely inside Auto.

"Give us the Index!" Juggernaut hissed. "Or I'll…

"Do what?!" Auto shouted at Juggernaut. "I have the Index. All you can do is stutter,"

"ENOUGH!" Eve yelled, silencing Auto and Juggernaut and causing Wally to fall over by her surprise yelling.

Eve took several breaths to calm down. When she was done, she straightened up and walked up to Auto.

"Look, Auto," She said. "The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo's defences, we can wipe them out,"

"Eve," Auto replied. "You have no idea what this ring was built for. Whilst I've been in here, I've gone over the data of Halo. This ring is a super weapon. It wasn't built to kill the Flood, it was built to kill their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. And that is what Halo is designed to do. Wipe the galaxy clean of all life. If you don't believe me, ask them," Auto concluded, pointing at Wally and Juggernaut.

Eve felt shock sweep through her. Auto had just told her what Halo was really built for. It was not built to kill the Flood, but to kill all life in the galaxy. She could not believe that whoever created this ring would make it a weapon to destroy all life in the galaxy. Eve turned to face Wally and walked up to him. The two's eyes met. Wally knew what Eve was thinking.

"Is it true?" She asked him.

Wally said nothing. He was frozen with fear, but shock as well.

"Wally, is it true!?" Eve repeated, her voice rising.

"I don't know," Wally replied. "Eve, I don't know. I was never told what this ring was created for,"

"Your lying," Eve whispered.

"I'm not," Wally squeaked. "I swear on my life, I am not lying to you. I did not even know what these rings were created for, until now,"

"Believe him, reclaimer," Juggernaut said. Eve, Auto and Wally looked at him. "He's telling the truth. The people that created this ring were called the Forerunners. They created it to destroy the Flood's chance of spreading should another outbreak occur. But this is just one ring. As this ring has a maximum effective radius of twenty five thousand light years, the other will also activate and cleanse this entire galaxy. Maybe destroying any chance of life, but it will stop the Flood from spreading."

"Left a little detail out, didn't he," Auto said.

"I cannot believe you would do something like this, Juggernaut." Wally said.

"Be quiet, Wally!" Juggernaut growled. "If there is one thing that I wish the Flood would just kill, it is you! You are a nuisance! Your are a pathetic human!"

"I'm not a human," Wally replied.

Juggernaut sighed.

"I think It's time you learnt the truth." he said.

Without warning, Juggernaut fired a blue beam of light at Wally. It hit him in the chest. Eve and Auto watched in horror as Wally collapsed onto the floor and began shaking uncontrollably whilst letting a strangled cry.

Horrible images were flying through Wally's mind. There were drills, a horrible burning sensation on his back and chest, tall cloaked figures with strange helmets and masks. Then, a metallic/croaked voice saying **"Uploading complete. Begin Inferi Redivivus resistance enhancements!"**

"No," Wally said weakly. "No! Please, no!"

Eve ran up to Wally, knelt down next to him and grabbed his shoulders. She tried shaking him. At once, Wally snapped out of his fit and shot up from the walkway floor, breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" Eve asked him.

Wally did not reply. He just sat there breathing heavily. What he had just seen really scared him.

"You see he cannot stand what happened to him when he was created," Juggernaut said. "We can help him, but right now we must activate Halo,"

"Your not activating anything," Eve replied, standing at her full height facing Juggernaut.

"Eve, I'm picking up movement," Auto said to Eve.

"We have followed outbreak containment procedure," Juggernaut said as he stepped towards Eve, who, along with Wally who had got up from the floor, began to back away. "Why do you hesitate to do what you have already done?"

Eve and Wally stopped as they hit the control panel. Eve placed a hand on a switch. Auto suddenly disappeared and his data cord stuck out from the control panel. Eve picked it up and placed it on her shoulder, where it sank into it and became part of the suit.

"Reclaimer, there is no choice. We must activate the ring," Juggernaut said.

"Get us out of here," Auto whispered to Eve.

"If you are unwilling to help, I will simply find another reclaimer, as I have learned there are more of them on this installation." Juggernaut said to Eve. "Give me your construct, or I will be forced to take him from you,"

"That's not going to happen," Eve replied, fists raised.

"So be it," Juggernaut said. Suddenly, a group of three sentinels flew up from underneath the walkway, their lasers pointed directly at Eve and Wally. "Kill them both. Save the female's head. Dispose of the rest."

A gold light began to form around Juggernaut. Then, as quickly as it came, it disappeared, taking Juggernaut with it.

The sentinels aimed their lasers at Eve. Wally saw this and stood in front of Eve to protect her. At that exact moment, the lasers fired.

Wally let out a yell as the lasers collided with his suit. The force of the lasers hitting his suit was so powerful that it actually threw him backwards into Eve.

"NO!" Eve yelled.

Eve placed two fingers on Wally's pulse. Thank God. He was alive. As Wally opened his eyes, the wounds on his skin quickly healed and the suit covered the wound areas. Suddenly, Wally's eyes shot open and he pointed at the sentinels. They were getting ready to fire again. Wally pushed Eve to the floor and jumped on top of her. As he did, the sentinels fired their lasers. The lasers flew over Wally, missing him by a mere inch and hit the control panel. However, the lasers also bounced off the control panel and flew back at the sentinels, hitting them and causing them to explode. The destroyed machines fell to the walkway floor and exploded into burning wreckages.

Wally and Eve got up from the floor.

"Thank you," Eve said to Wally. "You saved my life,"

"_Guys,"_ Auto said through his com. _"We can't let Juggernaut activate Halo. We have to stop him. In fact, we have to destroy Halo,"_

"Destroy my installation?" Wally asked.

"Wally," Eve said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "We can't let Juggernaut activate the ring. I doubt we'll be able to kill him because of his suit so the only option is to destroy the ring before he finds another way to activate it,"

"But…what about my home?" Wally asked. "I know It's now a weapon to destroy the galaxy but It's where I live,"

"You can come to Earth," Eve suggested. "It's a nice place to live. There'll be no Flood or sentinels trying to kill you,"

Wally sighed. It was a good offer Eve had given him. There would no more Flood that would try and kill him or any sentinels that would be on the hunt for him and Eve. But Halo was his home. He had stayed here for his entire life and now he was going to have to destroy it. Then again, Juggernaut would use it to destroy all life in the galaxy so, in a way, destroying the ring was the best option at the moment.

"Alright," Wally said. "I know where we can go to destroy the ring,"

Before Eve could ask where, gold lights began to form around the two. Within a few seconds, they were engulfed. Then, as quickly as they came, the lights disappeared, along with Wally and Eve.


	24. The pulse generators

**Ten minutes later**

**Location: Unknown mountain region, Halo**

Halo had many mountain regions scattered across It's surface. The largest was obviously where the control centre was. The second largest was where what Wally called 'Pulse generators'. As they left, Wally began explaining to Eve that Halo had three pulse generators that were the power core for the ring when it would fire. So, if they damaged or destroyed these generators, then Juggernaut would need to repair them before Halo could be used so this would by them some time.

The mountain region around this area was filled with caves. Carved out by the Forerunners and then had the metal flooring and walls placed in to stop the caves from collapsing. Many of them led to other caves or massive structures built into the mountains. There were the odd few that led to dead ends or to platforms on the sides of mountains. The platforms were the size of a UNSC warthog, in length and about two in width. They had hard metal surfaces and, again, the Forerunner markings were engraved in them.

On one of the platforms on the side of the tallest mountain, a gold light began to form in the air. It slowly grew bigger and bigger. Then, two shapes began to form in the light. As the light got bigger, the shapes began to look like humans. Then, the light suddenly disappeared. Standing on the platform, where the light had just been, were Wally and Eve.

"We're here," Wally said as he surveyed the landscape around and below the platform.

The landscape around them was covered with high and small mountains. Some were under one hundred feet tall whilst over towered over those numbering a staggering five hundred to six hundred feet tall. The mountain Wally and Eve were on was about six hundred feet tall, they nearly three quarters of the way up. There was another mountain in the exact same position as the mountain Wally and Eve were on only it was on the other side of a massive open space, which the ground was covered with sand and rocks. Wally looked right and saw another large mountain far off in the distance, on the other side of a massive mountain covered space with few or no sand paths going through it.

"Where are the pulse generators?" Eve asked.

"One will be inside this mountain," Wally replied, turning to face Eve. "The other two will be in those other two mountains," he added, pointing out to the other two large mountains.

"We better get moving then," Eve said.

Wally nodded and ran down the tunnel that led into the mountain; Eve followed. The two's feet pounded loudly as they hit the metal floor. Suddenly, Wally skidded to a halt. Eve did the same and narrowly missed hitting him.

"What is it?" Eve asked.

"Can you hear that?" Wally replied.

Eve listened for whatever made Wally stop. She could hear it as well. It sounded like…blasts and explosions? What the hell was it? Wally continued running down the tunnel; Eve followed him. The noise grew louder as the two went further down the tunnel. Finally, they came to a stop outside a large metal door. It had a circle in the middle and a line going down the door from the top to the circle, where it stopped but reappeared again from the bottom of the circle and carried on to the bottom of the door. The door was a brown/bronze colour and was jammed between half rock, half metal walls.

Wally walked towards the door. The circle in the middle suddenly turned a 360 degree angle before the door broke in two and both sides moved into the walls. Wally and Eve walked forward through the doorway.

The two found themselves on a walkway on the edge of what looked like a large hanger, only there were no ships parked inside the hanger. The hanger was a large square shape with silver coloured walls and floors. There was a large opening in the wall of the mountain that showed the scenery outside. However, the hanger was also complete wreck.

The walkway, which Wally and Eve were and that went the side of the entire hanger, had huge chunks missing out of it, there were fires erupting from piles of debris scattered around the floor of the hanger and there were several dead Covenant lying on the floor with blood splattered everywhere.

The noise was also coming from this hanger as well. Up near the opening in the side of the mountain, a Covenant minor Elite, armed with a plasma rifle, was firing at a group of combat forms. Wally and Eve watched as one of the combat forms fell to the floor, dead and then another ran up to the Elite and landed two blows with It's tentacle hands, killing the Elite and throwing it with bone crushing force onto the floor.

"What was that?" Wally asked Eve, pointing at the dead Elite.

"That was an Elite," Auto replied through his com. "Their part of a coalition of alien races called the Covenant. They're the reason we came to this ring in the first place,"

_ROOOOAAARRR!_

Without warning, a combat form jumped down onto the walkway and charged towards Wally and Eve. The two ran up the walkway, as they could not fight because Wally refused to use his laser and Eve had no weapons. Suddenly, a loud noise filled the room. It sound like grinding metal. And that's exactly what it was. As Wally and Eve neared the first corner of the walkway path, the walkway suddenly jolted violently. Then, it snapped. The part of the walkway Wally and Eve were on broke away from the main walkway and fell to the floor. It smashed loudly as it collided with the floor.

Eve groaned as she got up. She looked to her left to see Wally slowly getting up as well.

"You okay?" Eve asked him.

Before Wally could reply, a loud growl drew the two's attention to the hanger's entrance. The group of combat forms charged towards the two. Eve grabbed Wally's arm and ran with him towards the hanger entrance, hoping to get around the Flood combat forms.

Then, as Wally and Eve reached the hanger entrance, Eve saw the plasma rifle lying on the floor several feet from the dead Elite. She ran over to it, grabbed it and fired at the combat forms. The combat forms were hit and fell to the floor, dead.

"Let's find a way out of here," Wally said.

Wally ran towards the other end of the hanger; Eve followed. As the two got closer to the wall at the other end of the hanger, they saw another large brown/bronze coloured door with a circle in the middle of it.

BOOM! A massive explosion on the hanger's back wall blew a huge chunk out of it. Smoke rose out of the hole and dust formed a cloud in front of the new opening in the hanger. Then, out of the dust and smoke came a massive swarm of combat forms, both big and small. Only a few were armed with UNSC and Covenant weapons. Almost immediately after the swarm ran into the hanger, one of the combat forms, armed with a Covenant plasma pistol, spotted Wally and Eve and fired on them. This brought the attention of the rest of the swarm and they charged towards Wally and Eve at full speed.

"RUN!" Eve yelled.

The two ran towards the door as fast as they could. Behind them, they could hear the horrible, shuddering growls and roars and hisses of the Flood as they chased after them. Eve could hear them perfectly with her good hearing, which caused her to shudder. No wonder Wally was terrified of the Flood. What was surprising about that thought was that he had grown used to this. Even Eve would never have grown used to these horrible noises the Flood made.

The two reached the door. In a second, the circle turned and the door broke in two. It opened and Wally and Eve ran through it into another tunnel with metal floors and

"I'll disable the door," Auto said through his com. "That should slow the Flood down, I hope,"

At once, a loud bang filled the tunnel. Wally and Eve skidded to a halt and looked behind them. The door had shut, sealing the Flood away from them. Suddenly, a massive dent became visible on Wally and Eve's side of the door. The Flood were trying to break it down. It would not be long before they broke through it.

"C'mon," Wally said. "We have to get to the generator,"

Wally ran down the tunnel; Eve followed. This tunnel led down at a 20 degree angle. Up ahead, Wally could just see the end of the tunnel. Oh no. There was no way out. They were trapped.

"We're stuck in this tunnel," Wally said as he and Eve screeched to a halt.

"Hang on," Auto said through his com. "I'm doing a scan of this area. That wall is hollow. You should be able to break through it,"

Eve raised her plasma rifle and fired at the wall. Sure enough, it broke apart when the blasts hit it. The hole in the wall revealed another path leading left. Wally and Eve ran into this path and turned left down it. When they reached the end of this path, they turned left again, only this time the path went down at a 30 degree angle. The two ran down this path towards the bottom of it. When they reached the bottom of the path, they saw another brown/bronze coloured door. They approached it and it opened for them. The two walked through the open doorway.

Wally and Eve found themselves in a large octagon-like shaped room. It was much like the rooms Eve and Auto had gone through when they were fighting through the Covenant on their way to the control room. It had walls going around the middle of the room, which left a path going around the outside of the walls, and several pillars and cube shaped objects scattered in the middle section of the room. In front of Wally and Eve was an opening in the wall that led to the middle section of the room. In the middle of the room's middle section was a massive triangle based pyramid-like shape sitting on the floor. A light blue/white haze was emitting off of the object and going up through a hole in the room's ceiling directly above the object. Also, there was a control panel next to the object.

"There it is," Wally said as he and Eve walked into the room towards the object. "There's the pulse generator,"

"Okay, so how do we destroy it?" Eve asked Wally.

"Place me in the control panel," Auto said through his com. "I want to see if I can learn anything about these things before we destroy it,"

Eve nodded and walked with Wally towards the control panel. When the two reached it, Eve squeezed her shoulder and watched Auto's data cord rise up out of her suit and rest on her shoulder. Eve then picked up the data cord and placed it in a slot on the control panel.

"So how do we destroy this pulse generator?" Eve asked Wally.

"You have to use some kind of material," Wally replied. "That's all I remember. I have not been here for a long time,"

"Guys," Auto said as his avatar rose up out of the control panel to It's normal seven inches height. "I've gone over the data for this pulse generator. You need to use Dorvask in It's original form or when it's made into anything else to damage it,"

"What you mean I have to stick my head in that thing?" Eve asked Auto.

"It's only way," Auto replied.

Eve sighed. It was annoying she had to use her suit. She did not know what could happen. She could end up blowing up the room or getting herself killed in the process of damaging the pulse generator. She did not want to use her suit but if she did not then Juggernaut would find a way to activate Halo, since Auto still had the Index.

"I hope this doesn't hurt," Eve said.

Wally let out a nod before he backed away several feet. Auto disappeared back inside the control panel.

Eve reached the pulse generator. Her heart was thumping like mad against her chest. She did not know what could happen but it was worth the risk. Eve closed her eyes and placed her hand in the pulse generator.

BOOM! A loud bang filled the room. However, it was not an explosion but it did sound like one. However, Eve almost stumbled as she placed her hands over the side of her head, hoping to keep out the horrible ringing noise in her ears.

Wally, who had decided to hide behind a cube shaped object near the opening behind the two, poked his head out from behind his hiding place.

"You okay?" he asked Eve.

"Apart from the ringing noise, I'm fine," Eve replied.

Auto's avatar rose out of the control panel.

"Well that's one down," he said, looking at the pulse generator.

The generator now had several sparks flying off it. The light blue/white haze was now starting to turn red and red sparks were rising out of the generator into the hole above the generator.

"That's done it," Wally said. "Now we just have to find a way out of this mountain and get to the next pulse generator,"

"Already found a way," Auto said. "There's a floating lift that should take us over the open space to the next mountain. It's a quick way of travelling."

"Alright, let's go," Eve replied as she took out Auto's data cord, making his avatar disappear, and placed it on her shoulder.

Wally and Eve ran to the other end of the middle section, through the opening there and back into the path that went around the middle section. On the wall in front of them was another brown/bronze door. The two walked towards it, causing it to open. Behind the door was another tunnel. Wally and Eve ran down the tunnel, turned left, when they reached the end of the first tunnel, into another tunnel and then turned right into another tunnel. Up ahead was a massive hole in the rock wall where a door once stood, which the two could see because the sides of the door and the circle's remains were scattered on the ground. The two walked through the hole.

Wally and Eve found themselves in a large room with a square platform, held up by pillars, hovering several feet above the floor in the middle of the room. On the edge of that platform was a holographic switch. Directly above the platform was a large hole that led up to, what looked like, the outside. The floor was silver, but was stained with purple and light blue blood, indicating that the Flood and the Covenant had been battling here. What also gave that away was that there were two dead Grunts lying in the corner of the room.

"Are they Covenant?" Wally asked Eve.

"Yes," Eve replied. "There are four races that make up the Covenant. Those are Grunts…" Eve pointed at the two dead Grunts. "And there are Elites, which we saw in the hanger, and there are Jackals, which carry shields, and then there are Hunters, which are really big aliens,"

"So where do we go from here?" Auto asked through his com.

Wally into the middle of the room towards the platform. When he reached it, he rested a hand on the holographic switch.

At once, a loud noise filled the room. It sounded like something charging up, only it also sounded like something moving. It was coming from the hole. Wally and Eve looked up into the hole to see a large cube-like object descending towards the platform. When it finally came out of the hole, the object was a large cube shaped elevator with windows along It's sides, top and bottom. There were gold coloured supporters that went across the top and bottom of the elevator to hold the windows in place and there were two big gold walls at the front of the elevator.

The elevator slowed to a halt as it landed on the platform. Then, a window on the front broke in two and both pieces moved into the gold walls at the front of the elevator.

"Come on," Wally said. "We can use this to get to the next mountain,"

Wally and Eve walked into the elevator. The door closed. The elevator jolted as it rose off of the platform back into the hole. The two looked up and saw the hole far above them slowly get bigger. Finally, after several moments, the elevator came out of the hole and was floating above the side of the mountain.

Wally and Eve gazed in awe at the landscape around them. They could see more from this height than they could when they were on the platform. The mountains went on for miles and went beyond as far as Wally and Eve could see. There were enormous gaps between some of the smaller mountains and even a few chasms scattered far below.

As the elevator flew over the mountains, Wally and Eve looked out through the windows of the machine. Far below, they could see Covenant drop ships and banshees flying down to the ground. The elevator descended slightly as it went to pass between two small mountains. This allowed Wally and Eve to perfectly see the Elites, Jackals and Grunts firing on the wave of Flood that seemed endless as more of them came out of one of the mountains below.

"It looks like the Covenant are holding up the Flood for us," Auto said through his com.

"Not for long," Wally replied. "We have to get through these mo-"

BOOM! An explosion on the bottom of the elevator threw Wally and Eve to the floor. The inside of the elevator turned a bright red colour. Fire erupted on the back of the machine. It began spinning out of control in mid-air.

"WE'RE HIT!" Eve screamed.

"Just hang on!" Wally shouted back.

The elevator spun wildly out of control as it fell towards the ground. Wally and Eve braced themselves for the impact. The wait seemed like forever as the elevator neared the ground.

CRASH! The elevator skidded through the sand as it hit the ground. The elevator carried on skidding towards the edge of one side of a chasm. It came to rest when the front of the elevator was mere inches over the edge.

"Wally!….Wally" someone was shouting his name. "Wally…Wally!"

Wally shot up from the elevator. He had a small cut on the side of his head from where he had hit the elevator's floor. Eve was kneeling down next to him.

"Oh, good," she said. "Your okay,"

"How long was I out?" Wally asked.

"Only a few moments," Auto answered before Eve could.

Suddenly, the elevator jolted. Then, a loud metal grinding sound filled the air. The elevator began to slide forward further into the chasm. Only another few inches and it would fall down into the darkness, never to be seen again.

Eve pulled out her plasma rifle and fired on the back window. Unfortunately, the blasts did no damage.

"It's not working!" Eve said, panic in her voice.

Wally stood up and ran over to the elevator's door. He grabbed hold of them and, using all his strength, tried to pry them open. Eve ran over to help, but this did not work either.

"We're trapped," Wally said. "We can't get out. We are going to die."

SMASH! The two shot round to look at the back window of the elevator.

A Covenant ghost had crashed into the window, the force causing the glass to shatter completely. The Elite pilot must have been hit by a blast or something because as soon as the Ghost hit the window, the Elite fell out of the driver's seat onto the ground, dead.

"C'mon," Eve said, grabbing Wally's hand.

The two ran out of the back window and climbed onto the top of the ghost. Just in time. Literally, only a second after they made it out of the elevator, the machine made one more loud metal grinding sound before it finally moved over the edge and fell down into the chasm's darkness far below.

"That was close," Eve said.

BOOM! An explosion drew the two's attention to the open sandy landscape behind them. Two Covenant ghosts fell to the ground, both flaming wrecks. Their pilots fell down near them.

"RUN AWAY!" a high pitched voice squeaked.

A minor Grunt ran out from behind the destroyed ghosts. Several metres behind him, three tall combat forms were chasing after the Grunt. Then, one of the combat forms jumped forward in front of the Grunt, causing it to skid to a halt. The combat form then whacked the Grunt with It's tentacle hand, killing the Grunt.

Suddenly, one of the combat forms spotted Wally and Eve and charged towards them. The other two combat forms also spotted the two and followed the leading combat form.

Wally grabbed Eve's arm. His boots' antigravity kicked in and they flew into the air. Wally flew over the chasm and landed on the other side. The distance between the two sides was about one hundred feet, so the two breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe.

That thought was quickly put out of their minds when the combat forms jumped high into the air. Eve looked up in horror to see that they had jumped high enough to reach their side of the chasm. Thinking quickly, Eve fired several blasts from her plasma rifle at the combat forms. All were hit and fell down into the chasm below, disappearing into the darkness.

"We're safe," Eve said, lowering her plasma rifle.

"Not for long, we won't be," Wally replied.

Wally turned to find a way towards the mountain with the second pulse generator. He found it.

Several hundred feet in front of him was a small mountain that had a path going around the side of it. Wally could only see part of the path as the mountain in front of him was blocking it slightly. The path carried on behind the mountain until it disappeared when it turned left behind another mountain.

"This way," Wally said to Eve.

Wally ran towards the path that led through the mountain; Eve followed. The two ran down the path, one at a time as the path was too thin for both to run down together, turned left into the next path and ran to the end of that one. As they were about to turn right down the next path, an explosion fifty feet above them made them look up.

Two Flood combat forms jumped from the mountain to their right onto the mountain to their left. A sky blue blast then flew over the gap from left to the right. A Covenant Elite must be up there.

"C'mon," Wally said to Eve.

The two turned right and continued down the next path until they finally reached the end. They walked out into the open landscape, which was filled with small mountains and boulders. They could see the mountain they needed to get to not far ahead, probably about four hundred, five hundred metres. However, the two could also see a battle raging in front of them.

A Covenant wraith, next to the side of another small mountain, fired at a group of Flood combat forms attacking a squad of Grunts. The blast killed the combat forms, along with two Grunts. However, a massive swarm of infection forms fell from the mountain behind the wraith and attached themselves to the vehicle. Meanwhile, a Covenant Hunter, aided by several Jackals, was trying to kill a relentless wave of Flood combat forms charging out from a gap between two small mountains. They Hunter was eventually overwhelmed and killed.

"How the hell are we going to get through that in one piece?" Wally asked.

"Stay close behind me," Eve replied.

Eve ran out into the battlefield. Wally, who felt really nervous about her plan, followed. The two ran across the open landscape. Several times, they narrowly missed a blast from either Covenant or Flood forces. Once, the wraith, that was almost overwhelmed by the infection forms, fired a mortar blast at the two. Luckily, the blast hit the ground several metres behind Wally.

Suddenly, a massive explosion behind the two threw them to the floor. Wally groaned as he rubbed his head, where he had hit it from landing on the ground. Then, he looked up and saw the remains of a Covenant drop ship lying on the ground. Then, something grabbed Wally's arm. He shot round, thinking it was a Flood. Thankfully, it was only Eve.

"C'mon," she said as she helped Wally up.

The two continued towards the mountain. They were now only two hundred metres away. Just a little more and they would be able to destroy the last pulse generator.

"EVE, LOOK OUT!" Wally yelled, pointing up at the mountain.

Eve looked up and gasped. A massive swarm of sentinels were heading straight for them. They spotted Wally and Eve fired their beams on them. The two managed to dodge them. Eve took out her plasma rifle and fired up at the sentinels. Four of them exploded as they were hit and fell to the ground a burning wreckage. Eve then fired three blasts behind her. They hit a Flood combat form chasing after the two, killing it.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of running, Wally and Eve reached the side of the mountain. It was then they realised something; how the hell were they going to get in? A sudden charge behind them caused the two to turn round. The last five sentinels were hovering several feet away. They began charging up their lasers. Eve was not going to be able to destroy all these sentinels at once, especially with their weapons aimed at her and Wally. The lasers were fully charged right now. Eve clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. Looks like it was the end for her.

Suddenly, Eve felt like she was falling. Then, she hit the ground. She probably expected to see her body below her when she woke up. Remarkably, when Eve opened her eyes, she was alive. Wally groaned as she lifted his head from the ground and sat up. Eve looked around where they were. They had fallen down some kind of tunnel that led into the mountain. There was another tunnel that led straight on further into the mountain in front of the two. Even though the fall hurt at least they were safe from the sentinels, for now.

"You okay?" Eve asked Wally as they stood up.

"Yes, I'm alright," Wally replied.

"Guys," Auto said through his com. "I'm getting a strong energy signal. It's coming from the path up ahead,"

"We must be near the pulse generator," Wally said. "Let's go,"

Wally and Eve ran down the tunnel. As they did, they could see the brown/bronze coloured door at the end. It opened as they approached it. The two walked through the open doorway into another large octagon-like shaped room with a wall separating a middle section from the path that went around the outside of the middle section. In the middle of the room were more large cube shaped objects. Right in the middle of the room's middle section was another triangle based pyramid-like object with a light blue/white haze coming out of the top of it and going into a hole directly above the object, which Wally and Eve could see through an opening on the wall in front of them.

"Alright, the second generator," Auto said through his com. "You know what to do, Eve."

Eve groaned. She did not like sticking her hand inside a pulse generator that would make a horrible and really annoying ringing noise in her ears. Oh well. At least it was going to be worthwhile stopping Juggernaut and giving the two sometime.

Eve walked forward into the room's middle section towards the generator; Wally followed. She clenched her teeth and got ready for the ringing noise to erupt in her ears again.

Suddenly, the door the two entered the room through opened again. Only this time, it was a sentinel that hovered in. As soon as it spotted Wally and Eve, it fired a beam at the two. Wally dodged the deadly beam by diving sideways behind one of the large cube shaped objects. Eve ducked as the beam headed straight for her. It hit the pulse generator, only to bounce off and fly back to the sentinel. The beam smashed into the front of the sentinel, causing a small fire to break out on it. Sparks began to fly. The sentinel wobbled in mid-air. Then it dived forward towards Eve. It was going to try and kill her by flying itself into her.

Eve yelped and jumped out of the way of the machine. The sentinel missed It's target and hit the pulse generator.

BOOM! A loud bang filled the room. Wally and Eve covered their ears when the bang happened. After a few seconds, they slowly moved them off their ears, got up and walked towards the pulse generator. The sentinel must have been completely destroyed on impact with the pulse generator because there were no remains of it. The generator now had sparks flying from it and the light blue/white haze had now turned red.

"That's two down," Eve said. "Just one more to go,"

"We better hurry before more sentinels arrive," Wally replied.

Wally ran through the middle section of the room out onto the path on the other side of the middle section's wall; Eve followed. The two approached another brown/bronze door on the wall in front of them. It opened to reveal another tunnel behind it with metal floors and walls. Wally and Eve ran down the tunnel. The further they went down the tunnel, the more they realised that the tunnel itself was beginning to rise higher.

Eventually, the two came to a dead end in the tunnel. The two walked up to the wall and looked up. Above them was a massive hole that led up to another tunnel about two hundred feet up.

Suddenly, Wally felt something grab his hand. He looked down at it to see Eve's hand in his.

"Uh…" Wally said, blushing slightly.

He had never felt something like this before. Eve's hand felt soft in his. He closed his fingers around her hand and looked up into Eve's eyes.

"I feel different, you holding my hand," Wally said to Eve.

"It might be love," Eve replied, looking into Wally's eyes.

"What is 'Love'?" Wally asked Eve.

"Guys," Auto piped up through his com. "We do have a pulse generator to destroy,"

"Oh, right," Wally said, snapping out of his trance. "Sorry."

Wally's boots activated. He flew up the hole towards the path with Eve hanging on by his hand.

"Hey, Eve," Auto whispered, back to his normal voice so only Eve could hear him. "Wally blushed when he held your hand."

"I know," Eve whispered back. "I…I think he…well likes me,"

"He probably would," Auto replied. "I mean, you're the first female and proper human for him to come across for…God knows how long,"

Wally flew out of the hole and set Eve down on the path before landing next to her. Wally looked up into Eve's eyes again and blushed slightly before he let go of Eve's hand.

"See what I mean?" Auto asked Eve as Wally walked down the tunnel.

"Yes," Eve whispered back. "I think he really does love me,"

"You coming, Eve?" Wally asked, looking behind him to still see Eve near the hole that led up to the tunnel.

"Yes, sorry," Eve replied, running up to Wally.

The two continued down the tunnel. Up ahead they could see a turning that went right. BOOM! A massive explosion on the right wall next to the two threw them to the floor. A massive hole had been blown into the wall. On the other side was another huge hanger. Also in the hanger were Covenant and Flood forces fighting each other.

Eve groaned as she got up. She gasped when she saw Wally lying on the ground. She rested his head on her legs and placed two fingers on his pulse. Thank God. He was okay. Most likely thanks to his suit.

Wally let out a weak cough and groggily opened his eyes.

"Eve," he said, holding up a hand which Eve took.

Eve helped Wally up and brushed some of the dust off of his suit.

"What the hell was that?" Wally asked.

A high pitched scream answered his question. The two looked through the hole to see a Grunt running from an unarmed combat form. The combat form whacked the Grunt with It's tentacle hand. The Grunt yelled as it fell forward onto the floor, dead.

Eve took out her plasma rifle and fired at the combat form, fully killing it.

"Let's hope they haven't destroyed the entire place yet," Eve said.

Eve ran into the hanger; Wally followed. The two ducked behind a destroyed section of the walkway above the hole. Around them, Flood and Covenant troops were tearing each other apart.

An Elite fired a barrage from It's plasma rifle at a tall combat form, killing it. Another tall combat form then whacked the Elite twice with It's tentacle hands, killing it and throwing purple blood across the hanger floor. Two Grunts were caught by a swarm of infection forms. A Jackal fired shots from It's plasma pistol at nearby group of three carriers. The Jackal succeeded in causing one of the carriers to explode, which threw the other two carriers across the hanger. However, the infection forms that came out of the carrier were too quick for the Jackal and managed to overpower it. They attached themselves to the skin of the Jackal. Wally and Eve looked away as the Jackal screeched and tried to pull the infection forms off It's body. Blood flowed as the flood monsters ate away at the skin. Finally, the Jackal fell to the floor, dead.

"That was horrible," Wally said as he and Eve looked back at the battle going on between the Covenant and the flood.

"Let's hope we get through this without getting our heads blown off," Auto said through his com.

An Elite fell to the floor dead as an infection form jumped onto It's face. The infection form then spotted Wally and Eve and headed straight for them. Eve fired a shot from her plasma rifle at the infection form. It hit it and caused the creature to explode.

"C'mon," Eve said, grabbing Wally's arm.

Eve led Wally out from behind the destroyed section of the walkway across the hanger. She fired at several Covenant and Flood fighting nearby, killing two Grunts and a combat form.

An infection form then headed straight for the two but was killed by a green blast from a Grunt's plasma pistol.

All of a sudden, Wally pushed Eve to the floor and jumped on top of her to shield her.

"Wally, what the hell is…?" Eve shouted, only to abruptly stop.

Wally pushed her to the floor because a Covenant drop ship was heading straight for the hanger. Wally looked up and saw it get closer. Then, he saw it had a fire raging on the back of it and huge chunks of the L shaped parts of the ship had been ripped off.

"Stay down," Wally said to Eve.

The drop ship's engines were loud as thunder as they flew over the two into the hanger. The Covenant and Flood forces saw the drop ship, but it was too late for them to react.

BOOM! An enormous explosion shook the hanger as the drop ship collided with the floor and back wall. The explosion was so powerful that it actually blew apart the entire back wall, revealing a network of tunnels and rooms behind it, and threw massive groups of fighting Covenant and Flood, many of whom were at least one hundred feet away, out of the hanger to their doom.

Wally slowly raised his head and stood up. Eve did the same.

"You saved us," Eve said.

"I had to think quickly," Wally replied.

_ROOOAAARRRR!_

The two looked into the burning remains of the drop ship, which was where the roar had come from. A group of combat forms ambled out. They had arms missing or flabby parts missing. One even had both arms missing. They looked like a wave of walking death, then again that's what they are.

The combat form at the front of the group spotted Wally and Eve and charged towards them. This caused the other combat forms to spot the two and follow the leading combat form. Wally hid behind Eve as she raised her plasma rifle and fired a barrage of sky blue blasts at the group of Flood. The combat forms were hit continuously until they finally fell to the floor, dead.

"That's the last of the hostiles, for the moment," Auto said through his com. "Now, we just have to find a way to the last mountain,"

Suddenly, a strange scream filled the air. Wally and Eve heard it and turned to look out through the hanger entrance. A Covenant banshee was heading straight for the hanger as well. It was shaking slightly. Wally and Eve wondered why it was doing that. They got their answer when the banshee was closer to the hanger entrance. They could see a combat form on the side of the craft whacking the pilot, obviously an Elite, with It's tentacle hands.

Suddenly, the banshee made a dive straight for the two. Wally grabbed Eve and pulled her to the floor with him as the banshee hit the floor and skidded towards the burning drop ship's remains. CRASH! the banshee hit a huge part of one of the drop ship's L shaped sections. The crash threw the combat form into a nearby fire. The Elite fell out of the cog pit seat onto the floor, dead. Most probably being killed on impact and having suffered more wounds because of the combat form attacking it.

Wally and Eve ran over to the crash banshee.

"This is great," Eve said. "It's still intact. We can use this to get to the final mountain,"

"What about Wally?" Auto asked through his com. "Where is he going to go?"

"Will you be able to keep up with your antigravity boots?" Eve asked Wally.

"No," Wally replied. "They were built to hover and help me get to high places, not for speed,"

"You'll have to hang on to the wing then," Eve said. "Just don't let go,"

Wally nodded. Eve got into the banshee as Wally grabbed hold of the front part of the craft's right wing. A few seconds later, the cog pit hatch lowered over Eve and the engines lit up to life. Wally gasped as the banshee slowly lifted up from the floor. Eve tried to turn the banshee round as best as she could but kept making it go forward or backward whenever she tried to make it turn properly.

"Where the hell are the instructions for this thing when you need them?" Eve growled.

"I don't think the Covenant will need to give instructions to their pilots," Auto said.

"Yeah, thanks Auto," Eve replied sarcastically. "I really needed to know that,"

"Shut up," Auto muttered.

Suddenly, Eve pushed the switch forward, causing the banshee to shoot forward into a pillar that held up the walkway. Wally flew forward and landed painfully on the floor.

_"Oops,"_ came Eve's voice._ "Sorry Wally,"_

"It is okay," Wally replied, standing up and rubbing his forehead.

Wally turned and walked back towards the banshee. The pain from his forehead started to ebb away. Wally grabbed hold of the banshee's wing. His grip tightened as Eve managed to turn the banshee round so it was facing the hanger entrance.

"Okay, now let's hope I don't end up crashing into something this time," Eve muttered to herself.

Wally gasped and almost lost his grip on the wing as the banshee shot forward all of a sudden. Eve flew the banshee out of the hanger and out into the open air. Eve then flew the banshee higher to avoid hitting it on the side of a mountain.

The view was great. Wally looked down and saw all the mountains and open spaces between them. He also saw several small puffs of smoke, indicating there was a battle going on between the Covenant and the Flood down there. Even though this area of Halo was not exactly what someone would call a beautiful place, it was just nice being here.

What was also nice was that Wally was with Eve. The way she held his hand earlier was something he had never felt before. He had never felt like that before for…well, as long as he could remember. He had been on Halo for a really long time. So long, he just lost track. And Eve was right about him being a human. When Juggernaut hit him with the beam earlier on in Halo's control centre, he saw an image of him being dragged across the ground by something, or someone. Around him were other beings that had the exact same body as he did.

Suddenly, the banshee shook violently, nearly throwing Wally off of the wing. The craft then dived towards the mountain. It shook again. Wally began to panic as the distance between the banshee and the mountain rapidly decreased. Then, the banshee shot back up into the air.

BOOM! An explosion erupted behind Wally and Eve's banshee. Wally looked behind him to see the burning wreckage of another banshee lying on a flat area of the mountain.

_"Sorry about that,"_ came Eve's voice. _"They'll be more of them, so brace yourself."_

Eve was right. Just as they flew over the line of mountains, another Covenant banshee flew up from underneath them. It caught the two by surprise and hit the wing of the banshee Wally was holding onto. Wally was sent flying through the air over the cog pit section of the banshee. He would have fallen to his death if he had not grabbed onto the other wing.

"Wally!" Eve exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Wally shouted back.

A barrage of sky blue blasts flew around the craft as the Covenant banshee chased after the two, firing It's plasma cannons in an effort to shoot them out of the sky. Two hit the cog pit's hatch, causing a small pillar of smoke to rise from it. Another blast hit the wing just inches from Wally's leg.

Suddenly, the banshee stopped in mid-air. The Covenant banshee swerved around Wally and Eve's banshee so it would not crash into it. Eve then started the banshee again and chased after the Covenant banshee. When it was in range, she fired a barrage of blasts from the banshee's plasma cannons. Most hit their target, causing damage to the wings, hatch and even the cog pit. Finally…

BOOM! A massive explosion lit up the air as the Covenant banshee exploded in a fireball. The remains of the craft and even the Elite's dead body fell to the mountains far below.

"That was close," Wally muttered to himself.

"I can see the last mountain!" Eve exclaimed.

Wally looked in front of him and saw the final mountain just several thousand feet away in front of them. This was it. All they had to do was land in the hanger and head through the tunnels to the last pulse generator. There, Eve could disable it and the first part of their mission would be done.

"Okay, time to land this thing," Eve said.

"Um, Eve?" Auto asked.

"What is it, Auto?" Eve asked Auto.

"There's no hanger," Auto replied.

Eve looked on the control panel's holographic screen in front of her. Auto was right! There was no hanger! Where were they going to land?

Wally also began to notice this.

"Eve, there's no hanger for us to land in," he shouted to her.

"I know," Eve shouted back.

Eve tried to slow the banshee down, but the damage caused by the chase moments earlier had destroyed the engines more than any other part of the banshee, thus stopping it from accelerating, probably the only good thing at this moment, or slowing down.

"Wally, hang on tight!" Eve shouted out to him.

Wally tightened his grip on the wing and closed his eyes. He got ready for the impact to come and he prayed he and Eve would survive it.

CRASH! The banshee hit the side of the mountain. Wally almost flew forward off the banshee's wing onto the mountain. The crash was also powerful enough to throw Eve out of her cog pit seat onto the side of the mountain. Luckily, it was a small flat area she landed on.

Wally activated his boots and flew over to Eve. He set himself down on the ground next to her.

"You alright?" he asked as he helped her up.

"I'm fine, thank you," Eve replied.

"Guys," Auto said through his com. "How are we going to get to the pulse generator?"

Wally scanned the surface of the mountain. He was desperate to find another way into the mountain to the pulse generator. Finally, he found it.

About twenty feet below the two was a small square hole that led down into the mountain.

The two could not climb down to the hole as the mountain side was too steep or had sharp edges. Thank God Wally had his suit's boots.

"There," Wally said, pointing at the hole. "We can get into the mountain through that hole,"

Eve took Wally's hand in hers as she stood up. At once, Wally blushed again and went wide-eyed. He turned his head away from Eve, but she noticed this.

"Are you okay?" Eve asked him.

"Oh, yes. I'm fine," Wally replied, looking back at Eve.

He activated his suit's boots and flew up into the air. He then slowly descended down towards the hole. Wally carefully lowered Eve into the hole. Suddenly, a loud metal grinding sound filled the air. Wally and Eve looked up the side of the mountain to see the banshee heading tilting towards them. Then, it turned over and fell towards them.

"Hurry!" Wally shouted to Eve.

Eve pushed herself down into the hole as fast as she could. When she was about ten feet inside the hole, Wally quickly jumped into the hole, narrowly missing the banshee as it rolled over the hole before going over the side of the mountain and disappearing from sight.

Unfortunately, Wally's jump into the hole caused him to fall on top of Eve, which threw both of them down the hole. Both landed with thump on the floor of a room.

"Sorry," Wally said to Eve as he helped her up.

"It's okay," Eve replied.

The two looked around the room they were in. This was it. This was the octagon-like shaped room with the middle section. Through the opening in the walls in front of them, Wally and Eve could see the pulse generator with the control panel in the middle of the room's middle section. Again, scattered in the middle section around the pulse generator were several large cube-shaped objects.

"You know what to do, Eve," Auto said through his com.

Eve groaned and walked towards the pulse generator. Wally hid behind one of the cube shaped objects and covered his ears. Eve shut her eyes and put her hand in the pulse generator's haze.

BOOM! A loud bang filled the room. Eve staggered back and covered her ears as the ringing noise erupted inside them. Wally poked his head out from behind the cube shaped object and saw Eve with her hands over her ears.

"You okay?" he asked her as he walked over.

"Yes, I'm fine," Eve replied, taking her hands off the side of her head.

The two looked back at the pulse generator. The haze had turned red and now had red coloured sparks floating up the haze into the hole. Sparks were also flying from the generator.

"That's it," Auto said through his com. "The generators are destroyed,"

"This should buy us some time," Wally said.

"But how do we destroy Halo?" Eve asked.

"Don't worry, Eve," Auto answered through his com. "Whilst we were going through this area, I was going through the information I found the Axiom's crash site."

"Where?" Eve asked eager to know.

"Somewhere on the bottom on the ring's inner surface." Auto replied through his com. "We can use It's fusion reactors to destroy Halo. However, we need captain McCrea for the code."

"That's could be a really big problem," Wally piped up. "I doubt your captain will be alive,"

"We have to try," Eve said to Wally. "Auto, can you locate the captain?"

"You bet," Auto replied. "I was just doing that now. He's… Oh no,"

"What?" Eve asked.

"The group of Flood that captured him earlier have taken him to the Truth and Reconciliation's crash site." Auto explained. "There's a huge battle going on between the Flood and Covenant forces there. I think Wally's right. I doubt McCrea will be alive by now,"

"I'm not giving up yet," Eve said. "We're going to the Truth and Reconciliation to rescue the captain."

"I won't be able to come with you," Wally said.

"Why?" Eve asked, facing Wally.

"The sentinels most likely followed us here," Wally explained. "If we both go to this downed ship, they'll follow us there and kill both of us. If we split up, they'll be after me. If I get killed, then you won't be able to beam from one part of the ring to the other. You should be safe. I'll meet up with you at your ship's crash site."

Before Eve could say something, a gold light formed around her. Within a few seconds, it completely engulfed her.

"Good luck, Eve," Wally said as the light began to disappear. "You are going to need it."


	25. McCrea

The Flood were continuing their unstoppable drive across Halo, killing every human and Covenant they came across. The sentinels were doing their best to stop them. Even though Juggernaut had ordered all the sentinels on the ring to find and kill Wally and Eve, most of the machines had been attacked by the Flood and were engaged in battles with them.

One major battle on the ring was taking place at the Truth and Reconciliation's crash site. After the raid by Eve and the ODST's several days ago, the Covenant continued the repairs on the ship. However, when they were about to leave, the Flood began launching their attacks on Covenant forces around the ring. This caused most of the Covenant needed to pilot the ship to be sent across Halo to combat them. Eventually, the Flood broke through the defences and disabled the ship as it was leaving. The Truth and Reconciliation crashed several miles from where it was when the raid took place. After that, an immense battle broke out between the Flood and a Covenant strike team sent down to neutralize the Flood and repair the ship. It was amazing how none of the sentinels had managed to find their way here.

In one of the corridors of the Truth and Reconciliation, a gold light appeared. It grew bigger and bigger with each passing second. Finally, it disappeared, only this time Eve was standing in where the light was.

"We're here," Auto said.

Eve scanned the corridor she had just arrived in. It was a complete mess. Huge chunks of the walls on both sides of the corridor had been literally ripped out, there were holes in the ceiling, sparks were flying from destroyed lights either on the ceiling or on the floor and there were dead Grunts and Jackals scattered all the way down the corridor with their blood

thrown everywhere. Eve looked behind her and saw that a door had closed and was most likely to be locked.

"Whoa," She said. "The fighting has really screwed up the ship,"

"It's worse than that," Auto replied. "The ship has crashed in a canyon a few miles from where it was when we launched the raid. The fighting and the crash have created massive pools of reactant coolant that has leaked out from the ship. And everywhere in this ship or in the canyon, the Covenant and Flood are trying to rip each other's heads off. Now this place is what you would call a war zone," Auto concluded.

"Let's just hope we can find the captain and get out of here in one piece," Eve said.

Eve walked down the corridor towards a door at the end. As she got closer to the door, she could see sparks flying from it and more dead bodies. One Flood combat form and two Grunts. Looks like the Flood were going to win this battle. Suddenly, Eve's ear radio crackled to life.

_"Eve…" _a voice said. It sounded like…Captain McCrea! _"Don't be a fool…L…Leave me,"_

"Captain? Captain?" Auto exclaimed, desperately trying to make contact with him. "I've lost him,"

"We have to hurry," Eve said.

Eve ran down the corridor toward the door. It beeped loudly before opening. Eve ran down a smaller corridor towards a large one at the other end. Suddenly, she screeched to a halt.

A Grunt ran out from behind the left side wall across the corridor and disappeared behind the right side wall. Behind it, a combat form chased after it. This combat form had lost both of It's arms and the flabby part of It's head, so it was going to have a hard time killing the Grunt once it caught it.

Eve took out her plasma rifle and ran down the large corridor. She looked right down it to see the corridor end in small a circle shape area with two large purple pillars with holographic switches up against the wall. However, there were also a squad of four Grunts in this area armed with plasma pistols. As soon as they saw the combat form they fired on it, killing it.

Then, the Grunts turned and fired blasts from their weapons down another corridor leading left from the circle area.

"Looks like a fight is going to break out," Auto said.

Eve looked left down the end of the corridor where the Grunt and combat form came from. There was a broken open door, with pieces of it scattered across the floor, which revealed two dead Grunts and a dead Elite lying in front of another locked door. What was also in front of the door with the dead bodies was a small triangle shaped object with a light blue aura inside it. It was an invisibility cloak.

"Yes," Eve whispered, running over to the device. "We can use this to sneak past them."

Eve rested a hand on the device. All of a sudden, it disappeared. Eve looked at her hand and saw it fading away. Then, the rest of her body began fading away as well. Within a few moments, Eve had fully disappeared into thin air. Now sneaking past the Flood and Grunts was going to be the hard part.

Eve crept down the corridor towards the fighting. The scene up ahead was full of chaos. Two of the Grunts were lying on the floor, dead. Near them was a dead small combat form. Then, a carrier ambled out from the next corridor. One of the Grunts fired at it, causing the carrier to explode and throw five infection forms across the circle area. Eve reached the circle area. Pushing her back against the wall and breathing in, she tried to sneak past a combat form as quietly as she could. The combat form was too busy firing blasts from It's plasma rifle at the Grunts, but It's tentacles were waving around in the air. If they so much just touched Eve's suit, the combat form would attack and kill her.

"Almost there," Auto whispered. "Just a few more inches,"

Eve had almost made it past the combat form. Just another two inches…now one and a half….one, almost there! She was going to make it.

Suddenly, one of the tentacles hit Eve on the arm. The combat form shot round, aiming It's plasma rifle at where he felt Eve. Eve breathed in and kept as still as possible. If she now so much moved an inch, she was dead. The combat form moved It's plasma rifle from side to side, facing towards a turning at the other end of the corridor. Seconds felt like hours to Eve. She could not stay still for long. Time was running out. She had to save the captain! Finally, the combat form turned round and resumed firing on the last Grunt, which was hiding behind one of the pillars and was desperately trying to hit the infection forms with It's plasma pistol. Eve breathed a quiet sigh of relief and crept down the corridor towards the turning.

"That was close," Eve muttered.

"Yeah, it was," Auto replied. "Now let's just get to the captain,"

Suddenly, Eve felt her suit's shield light up. Then, the invisibility wore off, making her fully visible again. The last Grunt had fired a shot at the combat form. Unfortunately, it missed and hit Eve. With Eve fully visible, the combat form turned round and spotted her. It let out a ear piercing roar and charged towards her.

"RUN!" Auto yelled.

Eve ran down the corridor towards a door at he other end. It beeped loudly as she approached it. It opened. Eve ran through the open doorway.

"Whoa!" Eve exclaimed.

Eve skidded to a halt, just in time. On the floor in front of her was a massive hole that looked like something big must have blown it open, probably the crash. If the floor was still there, it would have led Eve into the hanger. On the hanger floor, on the other side of the hole, Eve could see two Elites firing blasts from their plasma rifles at a swarm of infection forms. One of the blasts hit an infection form, causing it and two other to explode. However, more would just appear. It was like an unstoppable wave of destruction.

Then, Eve heard a growl behind her. It was then she remembered why she was running. The combat form! Eve shot round to see the combat form walking towards her, It's plasma rifle aimed straight at her. Death lingered in It's eyes. Eve took a small step back, only to find that there was no more floor space.

"Eve," Auto said. "This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but you'll have to jump."

"Are you being serious?" Eve asked, worryingly.

"I'm afraid so," Auto replied. "Just jump! We'll another way back into the ship."

Eve looked down the hole. Thousands of feet below was the canyon. There were also enormous pools of reactor coolant visible. They lit up the night sky as if the sun had turned a new colour. Eve did not want to jump but even if she killed this combat form, more Flood would arrive to take It's place.

Eve breathed in and jumped.

One thousand feet. Now five hundred. Now two hundred. It felt like forever. Eve was worried that this jump was a fatal mistake.

"What if I get killed?" Eve shouted to Auto.

"Don't worry," Auto shouted back. "Your heading for the pool of reactant coolant. It should cushion your fall."

SPLASH! Eve landed legs first into the pool of reactant. Eve held her breath and did not dare to open her eyes. Covenant reactant coolant was very dangerous. It could cause people, even Covenant if they got some in their eyes, to lose their sight. Eve just swam upwards, like she was in a swimming pool, towards the surface.

Eve gasped for air as her head broke the surface of the coolant. She wiped away the coolant on her face before opening her eyes. When she opened them, she found herself in a wide open canyon. The continuous flow of reactant coolant was still falling down from the ship. On the ground around the pool, however, it was a scene of chaos.

Covenant and Flood were fighting each other into submission. All over the canyon's ground, in or near the poll or between rocks were dead bodies, both Covenant and Flood.

An Elite firing at two combat forms was hit repeatedly until it fell into a nearby smaller pool of reactant coolant, dead. Three Grunts, near the reactant coolant pool Eve was in, were firing at a small swarm of infection forms that had just fallen down from the ship. A carrier fell down in a big reactant coolant pool nearby and ambled out towards the battle.

"Jesus," Auto whispered. "It's like a world war down here,"

"Let's just get out of here before we get torn apart," Eve replied.

Eve swam to the land nearby. As she reached it, the body of a small combat form fell down onto the ground with the upper half of It's body in the pool next to her. Eve stood up and ran through the fighting Covenant and Flood. Even though she doubted she was going to need it, Eve kept her plasma rifle ready. Just in case any Flood or Covenant saw her and decided to take her down.

Eve jumped over the body of a dead Elite that had combat forms attached to the head and chest and were squirting the creature's purple blood everywhere. It was sickening just looking at it. Eve ran down a small pathway in front of her. She turned right into a short pathway and then left into another. After another right turning, Eve found herself in another pathway, only this time it was slightly longer than the last two and it led to another large open area. Eve ran down the pathway towards the open area.

When she reached it, she was greeted with a scene that was no different from the last open area. There was a large pool of reactant coolant dripping down from the ship and there were Covenant and Flood fighting each other. However, this time that land that the Covenant and Flood were fighting on was a small hill that looked like it had been part of the original ground but the location of the reactant coolant pool was probably where a bomb had gone off and pushed up the land, thus making the hill. There was also a thick rock column that stretched up towards the ship, only stopping several hundred feet short of the craft.

Just then, a light blue explosion lit up the area. It came from the hill. Eve looked and saw the bodies of several combat forms and Covenant Elites fly through the air and land either in the reactant pool or on a path, on the other side of the reactant coolant pool, that led up onto the top of another path that disappeared behind the side of a canyon wall.

"We better be careful here," Auto said. "These guys are really trying to rip each other to pieces."

"You got that right," Eve replied.

Eve ran towards the battle raging on the hill. As she approached it, she saw several dead Grunts lying on their backs or sides. The body of a Jackal hit the ground in front of Eve as she passed the dead Grunts, causing her to fall over onto her back. Eve was about to get up when she suddenly gasped and stopped dead.

A swarm of Infection forms had come up the side of the hill and were making their way towards the battle. Eve held her breath. She went wide-eyed as the creatures of death slithered over her body. It felt horrible. Eve was so panic-stricken that she almost wanted to get up and run, but if she did, the infection forms would attach themselves to her and kill her.

Seconds ticked by. The infection forms continued to come over the hill.

Come on! Eve thought. Stop already!

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the infection forms stopped coming over the hill. Eve breath a quiet sigh of relief and slowly rose up from the ground. She looked towards the cannon wall several metres away. Two major Elites and a squad of Grunts and Jackals were firing at a massive group of combat forms, both armed and unarmed, and infection forms. Four infection forms jumped onto one of the Elites. The Elite screamed and tried to pull them off it, but it was no use. After a few seconds, the Elite fell to the ground dead.

"That was horrible," Eve said.

"That'll happen to us if we don't hurry," Auto said to Eve.

Eve got up and ran across the top of the hill towards the path. When she reached it, Eve looked up the path. She skidded to a halt. At the top of the path were two tall combat forms and a carrier. The combat forms were armed with plasma rifles, MA5B assault rifles or M90 shotguns. Ones was even armed with a sentinel laser, only it was partly destroyed so it was most likely not going to work.

Before the group of Flood spotted Eve, she raised her plasma rifle and fired at them.

BOOM! The carrier exploded. The force of the explosion threw the two combat forms clear off their feet through the air. They landed with a loud splash in the reactant coolant lake. Eve then fired at the infection forms thrown from the carrier, killing them as well.

"That's one more group of Flood out of the way," Auto said.

"I just hope the captain's still alive," Eve said.

"He will be, don't worry Eve," Auto replied, trying to calm Eve. "McCrea's been through a lot of situations in his life."

"Yeah, but I doubt he's been through one like this," Eve said to Auto.

_ROOOAAAARRRR! _

Eve shot round. She gasped.

At the top of the canyon wall behind where the battle was raging between the remaining Covenant and Flood, a massive group of at least ten unarmed combat forms jumped down from the top of the canyon wall into the battle. Eve watched in horror as one of them wrapped It's tentacles round one of the Elites' mandibles and began pulling hard. Then… well let's just say that the Elite was one mandible shorter and the combat form's skin had turned purple around where the head and upper chest was.

"That was horrible," Eve gasped.

"The same thing could happen to us if we don't run," Auto replied.

Eve turned and ran down the path that led behind the canyon wall. Within a few seconds, the noise of the battle disappeared. Eve turned right into another path, that was almost Eve's width and she had to turn sideways and shuffle down this path until she reached the end, then left into another path, that had several bulges sticking out from both canyon walls which made the path thinner at some points, before going right into another path.

When Eve was half-way down the third path, she stopped suddenly. She sniffed the air. It smelt like rotting corpses. And it was strong. That could only mean one thing.

Without warning, a loud thud behind Eve made her jump. Eve turned to see a carrier form lying on the ground. Another thud behind her indicated that another carrier had hit the ground. Both began swelling up as if they were being inflated by some invisible bike pump. Eve jumped over the carrier behind her and continued running down the path. Two booms behind her indicated the carriers had exploded, meaning that a swarm of infection forms would soon infest this entire canyon.

Eve continued on down the path, hoping to put as much distance between her and the Flood as possible.

Suddenly, she skidded to a halt. Just in time as well. Eve stopped on the end of a path about fifteen feet above a pool of reactant coolant. Eve scanned the scenery around her.

In front of her was a large wide open space that was kind of shaped like a circle. In the middle of the open space was a large area of ground that looked like some kind of newly formed island. The pool of reactant coolant surrounded the island-like part of the ground. Also about half-way down the island-like part of the ground was an archway that was connected from one canyon wall to the other. Right underneath that archway were two hunters and a squad of Jackals and Grunts. What was bad about this was that there were no Flood in sight.

"Great," Eve muttered to herself. "We finally meet Covenant with big guns and they aren't fighting any Flood,"

"Let's just hope some Flood will arrive and distract them," Auto replied, muttering quietly to Eve.

Just a few seconds later, fortune seemed to smile on the two. Two carrier forms fell down from the right canyon wall into the reactant coolant lake. A quiet boom, but it was loud enough for Eve and the Jackals, then erupted from the pool. Then a second after that, a swarm of ten infection forms came out from the pool and headed straight for the group of Covenant.

"Alright," Eve muttered under her breath. "Now we can continue towards the ship,"

"Remember, don't open your eyes," Auto said to Eve

Eve looked down at the coolant pool. Lucky Auto reminded her of it.

"Right," Eve said.

Eve closed her eyes, breathed in and jumped off the end of the path. She fell down towards the pool. She braced herself for the impact and had one thought going through her, and probably Auto's, mind as well. Don't open your eyes

SPLASH! Eve hit the pool. With her eyes closed, she was virtually blind to any danger in front of her. Eve swam forward. As she went further forward, her hands touched the hard surface of rock, meaning she was near the part of land that was an island.

Eve let out a loud gasp for air as her head broke the surface of the coolant pool. She wiped away the coolant from her eyes and stood up. She shook herself of the coolant and walked forward onto the island. Somehow her suit also managed to repel anything that would stick to it. No wonder it was always clean and clear, apart from the small tear where Eve was hit in the arm when she was at the control centre mountain range.

"LOOK OUT!" Auto yelled all of a sudden.

Eve dived forward. A green light flew over her, narrowly missing her head.

BOOM! Eve was thrown forward several feet by the blast of the green object exploding. She landed on the ground. Thankfully, it was not very painful. Eve looked up and saw one of the Hunters with It's cannon aimed at her. It had spotted her when her head broke the surface of the pool. Then, the cannon began to shine light green. Eve went wide-eyed. The cannon was charging up for another shot! Suddenly, another explosion behind the Hunter threw it to the ground. Eve looked behind where it was standing and saw the other Hunter lying dead on the ground. Two infection forms jumped off it and attached themselves to the other Hunter. The Hunter squirmed and shook as it tried to get them off it. Finally, after a few seconds, the Hunter lay still on the ground.

"The Hunters are dead!" one of the Grunts squeaked. "Run away!"

Eve saw her chance and ran forward. However, one of the Jackals spotted her and fired on her. The blasts hit Eve's shield, causing the holographic meter to appear above Eve's wrist. The level was blinking red and was in the green zone. Eve raised her plasma rifle and fired a barrage of sky blue blasts at the Jackal. The Jackal held It's shield in front of It's body to protect itself, but the shield could not stay activated by the barrage of blasts hitting it and deactivated, exposing the Jackal. Eve then fired three more blasts at the Jackal, killing it.

"Leave the rest," Auto said to Eve. "Let's just go,"

Eve ran on past the remaining Covenant soldier, who was firing at the infection forms. Eve ran down a path that led through the open area's back wall. As she ran down the path, she could see another open area at the end.

Eve ran out of the path into the open area. This open area was different than the one she had just come out of. The path she was in looked like one big circle-like open area, except that there was a massive gap at where the front canyon wall would be if this was a circle open area. In that gap was another open area that was slightly larger than the one Eve was in, that led to a canyon wall. There was a path that went up the side of the right wall to a small opening on the wall at the back of larger open area. Below that was a massive pool of reactant coolant.

In the part of the open area Eve was in were several other smaller reactant coolant pools. On a small hill next to one of them was a Covenant shade turret. Inside that turret was an Elite. On the ground around the turret were several Grunts. They were all on alert, especially since there were two dead Jackals and another dead Elite lying on the ground nearby. Suddenly, the Elite let out a roar and aimed the cannon at the pathway. Eve could not see what the Elite was targeting at first. Then, she saw them. Four tall combat forms and three small combat forms. One of the small combat forms was armed with a needler. It fired a barrage of purple, needle sharp projectiles at the Elite. The projectiles easily broke through the Elites' shield and embedded themselves in It's skin. The Elite roared in pain and tried to pull them out.

BOOM! A small explosion threw the Elite off the turret and even managed to push the titanic weapon onto It's sides. The Grunts squealed and ran in all directions.

Eve ran forward and fired a barrage from her plasma rifle at the Flood combat forms. She hit and killed the combat forms. However, her plasma rifle stopped firing all of a sudden.

"It's out of juice!" Eve exclaimed.

_ROOOAAARRRR! _

Eve looked up and saw two carrier forms and another three big combat forms jump down from the top of the right canyon wall into the reactant coolant lake. Eve looked around her frantically to find a weapon to use against the Flood. Apart from the weapons the Grunts had in their hands and the needler that was on the ground, which Eve would not be able to use against the Flood in time, the only other weapon was the turret.

"I know what your thinking," Auto said. "It's not a good idea,"

Eve did not listen to him. She ran over to the turret and, with all her strength, pushed it back onto It's legs. Eve looked down the path and saw the group of Flood just coming out of the reactant coolant pool.

Eve jumped into the turret's seat. The sphere in the middle of the turret broke in two. The top half of the sphere rose up several feet from the lower half. Eve pressed a small dark blue button on the turret's control panel near her knee. Eve jolted in the turret seat as the weapon fired three purple blasts at the group of Flood. The blasts hit one of the carriers, causing it to explode. One of the combat forms was killed by the carrier's explosion. It flew through the air over the turret and landed in one of the small coolant pools.

Eve fired another set of blasts at the group of Flood. The other carrier was hit and it exploded. The other two combat forms were thrown through the air and landed on the ground near the turret. "NOOOO!" one of the Grunts, that had been hiding behind a rock next to one of the small reactant coolant pools, yelled.

"We're gonna die!"

The Grunt ran out from behind the rock, waving It's arms wildly in the air. The reason was that most of the infection forms were heading straight for Eve and the turret. About two of them were heading for the Grunt.

"Leave them! Run!" Auto said to Eve.

Eve jumped off the turret and ran past the infection forms, narrowly missing one as it jumped up to try and attach itself to her. Eve ran down the path as fast as she could. She was determined to put as much difference between her and this area before more Flood arrived.

Eve skidded to a halt as she reached the end of the path. The end of the path was actually like a small cliff. The path was about a fifteen feet drop below her. It led further into the canyon wall but disappeared as it turned right behind the canyon on the right side of the path.

Eve held her breath and jumped off of the edge of the cliff-like path down towards the path below her. She landed with a thump on the ground. Luckily, it did not hurt a lot.

Eve stood up and ran down the path. She turned right into the path hat led behind the canyon. When she reached the end of this one, she turned left into another path, only this one ended as soon as she turned into it. Eve gasped.

In front of her was another wide open area in the shape of a circle. However, this time there was a small hill right in the middle of the open area. Around the edges was another pool of reactant coolant. However, what made Eve gasp was that there was a purple light shining down on the top of the hill. That light was coming from the massive shape several hundred feet above the open area that was the Truth and Reconciliation.

"We made it," Auto said. "Now we just have to get inside,"

"Only there's a few Covenant guarding the entrance." Eve replied.

Eve was right. On the top of the hill, where the light was shining down onto, were two Elites and four Grunts. What was bad about this was that they were all major and were armed with either needlers or plasma rifles. For the moment, they were aiming their guns around the open area, just in case any enemies tried to get inside the ship.

"Well, this is going to be fun," Eve said sarcastically.

"You can just go up there and kill them, can't you?" Auto asked her.

"Yeah, Auto, one problem," Eve replied. "I don't have a gun,"

_ROOOAAAARRRR! _

The roar filled the air around the open area. Eve dived back behind the path and hid behind the canyon wall. She poked her head out from inside the canyon and watched the scene unfold.

A massive swarm of combat forms, infection forms and carriers were coming at the hill from all directions. A few combat forms even jumped down onto the ground right in front of where the path led into the canyon. Eve watched as the wave of Flood charged the Covenant at the top of the hill. Those that were armed with weapons fired on the Covenant, who retaliated with their own gunfire. A few Flood combat forms fell and a few infection forms and carriers exploded, but the rest just charged on towards the Covenant.

Then, one of the Elites fired a barrage of projectiles at a tall combat form armed with a plasma pistol. The projectiles embedded themselves in the combat forms' skin.

BOOM! The projectiles exploded. The explosion was so powerful that it threw the combat form several feet into the air. The plasma pistol the combat form was wielding flew through the air and landed at Eve's feet.

"Okay, are you like a magnet or something for weapons when whoever's holding them gets killed?" Auto said.

Eve ignored him. She knelt down and picked up the plasma pistol. She stood back up to her full height and looked back up at the hill. One of the Grunts was dead, which Eve could see lying at the feet of one of the Elites. However, there were many dead combat forms scattered on and around the hill. It was surprising that even the Covenant had the superior technology and troops, they were being slaughtered everywhere. It's like in the films where a powerful is annihilated by an unstoppable enemy and then one unit is all that stands between the enemy and total defeat.

Eve ran towards the hill. Blasts and projectiles flew towards and from behind her as she neared the hill. Eve even narrowly missed an explosion by a plasma grenade thrown by one of the Elites. Eve ran up the hill, firing a barrage of light green blasts at the Covenant forces at the top as she neared the gravity lift at the top of the hill. One of the Elites and two of the Grunts fell to the ground dead. This was enough to make the last Grunt flee down the other side of the hill, only to get attacked and killed by an infection form.

The last Elite threw a punch at Eve. It missed, but knocked the plasma pistol out of her hand. The plasma pistol slid down the side of the hill to the bottom. The Elite threw another punch at Eve, but she dodge the attack and responded by pushing the Elite backwards, causing it to drop It's weapon. The alien stumbled backwards and rolled down the hill to the bottom. It groaned as it lifted itself up from the ground. Suddenly, two infection forms jumped onto the Elite. The Elite screamed in pain as the infection forms ate away into It's insides. Purple blood was thrown everywhere. Finally, the Elite lay still on the ground. The infection forms jumped off the carcass and followed a combat form up the hill towards Eve.

Eve frantically looked round, hoping to find a weapon. She would not have time to run and grab her plasma pistol as another combat form was running towards her from the direction where the pistol was. It was then she realised the Elite had dropped It's weapon when she pushed it. The Elite's weapon, a plasma rifle, was on the ground at Eve's feet. Eve grabbed it and fired a barrage down at the combat form and infection forms in front of her. The combat form was hit repeatedly until it fell to the ground, dead. The two infection forms exploded when they were hit. Eve then shot round and fired four blasts at the other combat form, fully killing that one as well.

"Alright," Auto said. "The area's secure. The Covenant have locked the gravity lift's door. I'll try and open the door to let us in."

"Okay," Eve replied.

Eve raised her plasma rifle and scanned the area. It would not take long for Auto to unlock the gravity lift door but it would also not take long for any Flood to show up. Eve needed to make sure no Flood would be lifted inside the ship with her.

_ROOOOAAARRR! _

The loud roar filled the air. It came from the back of the open area. Eve shot round to see an army of combat forms jumping down from the open area's rear canyon wall onto the ground.

"Auto, hurry up!" Eve almost shouted at him.

"I can't go any faster!" Auto replied.

The wave of combat forms numbered thirty. Even for Eve, who had killed enormous squads of Covenant and Flood, this was out of her hands. Eve looked up at the gravity lift's doors. A look of plea came across her face.

_Come on!_ Eve thought tensely. _Please open up! Please!_

Then, fortune seemed to smile on Eve. The door opened. Eve looked back at the combat forms to see them about to run up the hill.

Suddenly, Eve felt a lifting feeling. It felt like as if though some invisible hands had come down from above and grabbed her. Then it hit Eve. She was slowly hovering into the air. The gravity lift was pulling her up towards the ship! Eve was lifted up higher and higher into the air towards the ship. She looked back down at the ground. The combat forms had just reached the gravity lift. She had escaped from the combat forms literally just in time.

Then, Eve realised that the combat forms were not changing size. Usually, they would begetting smaller and smaller. It was then Eve realised. The combat forms were being hovered up to the ship as well.

"Auto!" Eve exclaimed. "The combat form's area coming up here as well,"

"Don't worry, I'll disable the lift when we pass the lower bay door." Auto replied. "That'll slow them down, I hope,"

_Oh Great!_ Eve thought.

Suddenly, a loud whirring noise filled the air. It was coming from the ship. Eve looked up and saw the lower bay door opening. That was one good thing but, hopefully, Auto will close them to stop the Flood from following her into the ship.

In the blink of an eye, Eve found herself go from being outside in a war torn canyon to a landscape covered with metal and steel.

Eve hovered in the air for a few seconds. She looked below her to see the shapes of the combat forms hovering up towards the lower bay doors.

"Auto, come on!" Eve growled.

"Hang on," Auto replied. "Almost…there,"

In an instant, the lower bay door shut with the combat forms no more than ten feet from entering the ship. As soon as the door shut, Eve fell down onto the closed door. She scanned the room. A lot had changed in this room since she and ODST's raided the ship just days ago.

Huge chunks had been ripped out of the wall and pieces of them were scattered across the floor. Some of the small doors were open to reveal masses of dead Covenant in the small corridors behind them and some of the vehicles in the room had been either torn apart or turned on their sides. At the back of the massive room was an open blast door, the same that the squad went through in the raid. Eve could just see a destroyed wraith burning in the massive pathway that led down to the next large room.

"Whoa," Auto said. "The Covenant and the Flood have really been battling each other,"

"Let's just hope we're not going to be caught in the middle of their fighting," Eve replied.

Eve ran over to the small door near the open blast door. She remembered the way since she went through the same door to free the squad from the pathway behind the blast door. Eve ran up the corridor to the large corridor at the end. When she reached it, she turned right through the torn apart door, then turned left into another long corridor and then right into another corridor that led to the small door. It beeped loudly and opened. Eve ran through the open doorway.

This was it. Eve found herself in the large room with walkways, going about thirty feet up, along the side of the walls. Below her were several Covenant vehicles. However, she could also see Flood. There were several carriers and combat forms walking around on the room's floor. They looked like some kind of dark creatures that were waiting to pounce on their next victim.

"Eve, look in the corner of the room," Auto said.

Eve looked in the corner. She gasped silently.

There were bodies! Many of them! There were Grunts, Elites and Jackals. In one corner of the room there was even a dead Hunter. Their blood was thrown over the walls and floors. These Covenant were probably the carcasses from a battle that must have raged in this part of the ship.

"The Flood are gathering bodies here," Eve said quietly.

"They're going to make them one of them," Auto said.

"We need to get the captain, quick!" Eve replied.

Eve stood up and ran to the end of the walkway towards the door. It beeped loudly as she approached it. Eve kept her plasma rifle near her. She did not known how many more of the Flood could be waiting in these corridors, but it was most likely to be a big number because of the bodies of dead Covenant.

Eve ran down the corridor behind this door, then turned left into the next and ran down that one. When she reached the end of this corridor, she turned right into the next corridor. At the end was the doorway that led onto the large room's floor. Eve tightened her finger on the plasma rifle's trigger. She knew that the Flood would attack her on sight, but she did know how many more of them were in the room.

Eve breathed in and ran down the corridor. When she reached the doorway at the bottom of the corridor, she raised her plasma rifle and fired into the room, hitting and killing a combat form. She also caused a carrier to explode, which killed another combat form.

Eve ran into the large room and frantically looked round. She needed to find a way out of here quickly before more Flood arrived. She looked left and right. Then, she found a way out.

There was an open small door on the left wall of the room. Eve could see massive chunks from the walls blocking most of the corridor behind the doorway, acting as though the Covenant had placed them there to stop the Flood but failed. Maybe there was a way further into the ship and, hopefully, towards the captain.

"Warning, a blast door is opening!" Auto exclaimed.

Eve looked towards the other end of the room. Auto was right. The blast door, that she opened for the squad during the raid, was opening. What was bad about that was as soon as it opened, a wave of Flood combat and infection forms charged out of the corridor into the room. They spotted Eve and charged straight towards her.

"RUN!" Auto yelled.

Eve did not need telling twice. She ran towards the open small door, the Flood hot on her heels. Eve began to panic when she saw the combat forms gaining on her. She urged all her strength into her legs. Eve ran through the doorway, almost tripping over on a small hole in the floor. She slid down the gap between the wall and the huge chunks of the wall really quickly. Eve took another look behind her to see the Flood at the doorway. Even though the Flood were not fast at going through small gaps, it would not be long before they reached Eve. Eve ran left down a short corridor. Suddenly, she skidded to a halt.

There was another door several metres down the corridor. It was closed, most likely to be locked. However, that was no what caused Eve to stop. Just a few feet in front of the door were four combat forms. They were armed with battle rifles. The combat forms walked towards Eve, who began to step back away from them.

"We're trapped," Auto said to Eve. "There's no way out of here,"

Suddenly, Eve felt like she was falling. That's because she was. Then, she landed hard on a metal floor. Eve groaned as she stood up. She looked up to see a circular hole in the ceiling, which was where the floor of the corridor she had just been in was. Eve looked ahead, in the direction of the locked door on the corridor above, to see she was in a long corridor. Eve decided to get out of this part of the ship before the Flood came down here.

Eve ran down the corridor as fast as she could. When she was half-way down the corridor, she heard a loud growl. The Flood were trying to get down through the hole into the corridor! Eve ran faster towards the end of the corridor. When she reached the end of it, she turned left into another long corridor. However, there was a battle going on in this corridor. Dotted down both sides of this corridor were smaller corridors that led to locked or blocked doors. Blast and bullet fire was shooting from one side to the other. There were even many Flood and Covenant fighting each other in the middle of the battle.

"We need to get through this," Auto said to Eve.

"Don't worry, we will," Eve replied.

Eve raised her plasma rifle and ran down the corridor towards the battle. When she was just metres from the first wall of blast and gunfire flying across the corridor, she fired a barrage of sky blue blasts in front and to the sides of her. Several enemies fell but they would arise again to be Flood, no matter if they were Covenant or even if they were already Flood.

"Get down!" a Grunt, in the midst of the fighting, squeaked.

BOOM! A blue explosion lit up the whole corridor. The explosion killed several Covenant and Flood. Eve was thrown to the floor. She groaned as she got up. Eve saw the many bodies lying on the floor, never to rise again. She picked up her plasma rifle, which had been dropped in the explosion.

_ROOOOAAARRRR!_

Eve shot round to see the wave of combat forms running up the corridor towards her and several visible Covenant.

Time to go! Eve thought.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE! RUN AWAY!" a Grunt yelled.

Eve ran down the corridor towards the end. Behind her, she could hear the shuddering roars and growls of the Flood and the terrible screams and yells of Covenant Grunts and Jackals. Eve took one quick look over her shoulder. She saw a combat form with It's arms tight around a Grunt and it holding the helpless creature several feet above the floor. The combat form then released one of the Grunts' arms and grabbed Its chest. After that, Eve had to look away as… well let's just say the Grunt no longer had any inside in It's chest.

Eve skidded to a halt as she reached the end of the corridor, which a circle shaped area. She frantically looked round to find another way out of this corridor before the Flood overwhelmed and killed her. There was no way out of this circle area, except through the way she just came.

_ROOOOAAARRRR!_

Eve shot round again. The Covenant were lying dead across the corridor's floor. Light blue blood and purple blood stained the corridors walls. What Eve could also see was the wave of combat forms running up the corridor towards her. They were just four metres away…now three…now two. Eve closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. If she was going to die now, she wanted it to be quick and painless. But if there was one thing she really wished for, it was not to be one of the Flood.

CRASH! Eve shot upwards as something big smashed through the floor and crashed right through the ceiling. Eve was clinging onto the side of the object near the bottom of it. She pressed herself against the object as much as she could s she would not have her back sliced open by anything sharp from the floors and ceilings when the object crashed through them. Eve did not know what the hell this thing was, but she really wanted to let go. But she was scared that if she did, she would end up breaking her neck by hitting a ceiling or floor.

Finally, the object crashed through the floor to a large room. Then, it hit the ceiling and fell back towards the floor. Eve saw this and jumped off the object. She landed on the floor, narrowly missing the object as it crashed down just mere feet from Eve. Eve breathed a sigh of relief as she just narrowly missed being crushed. She took a look at the object. It was a massive cannon from a Covenant drop ship. It was burned really badly and even had massive chunks of the top of the weapon missing. By the looks of what happened, an really powerful explosion must have thrown it up from well wherever it was and caused it to go crashing through the floors and ceilings.

Eve stood up and looked round the room she was in. It had two trench-like holes that went down about her height. Above the trench holes was a large circular platform. Around the edge of the platform were several small pillars that had holographic. There was a small ramp that led from the floor up to the platform. The room had four small doors scattered around the walls. Two on the left wall in front of Eve and two on the right wall behind Eve. She was in the ship's control centre.

However, there was something different about the control centre this time than when Eve was here during the raid. On the platform was an enormous dark green thing that had an enormous body that was probably twenty feet in height and nearly the same in width. The body was round and the skin looked extremely thick. In a way it kind of resembled a carrier form, only this thing was much bigger and was a different colour and had a different purpose, and it had had long, thin pipe-like tubes that stuck out from the thing's body and attached themselves to either the ceiling, walls or platform floor. There was one even attached to the holographic symbols. By taking only one look at this thing, it was not hard to tell that it was part of the Flood. But whatever it was called and whatever It's purpose was unknown.

Eve took out her plasma rifle and, slowly and cautiously, walked up the ramp towards the platform. When she reached the platform, she saw kneeling down on the floor several feet in front of the thing. There were many wire-like things sticking out from the thing and seemed to be attached to the person's back, chest and head. As Eve neared the person, she saw it was a male and he was wearing a UNSC navy captain's uniform.

It was McCrea.

"Captain!" Eve exclaimed.

Eve did not care what happened to her now. She and Auto had found captain McCrea. However, as Eve ran over to him, the two did not know one thing. Was he alive? Eve knelt down next to McCrea when she reached him. She grabbed his cheeks and held his face up. He looked horrible. He had cuts and bruises all over his face, a black eye and he even had dry blood stains over his mouth. What was worst though was that one of the wire things, that was attached to McCrea's head, had gone over one of his eyes, making it look like his skin had covered it. It was horrible.

"Is he dead?" Eve asked Auto.

McCrea suddenly stirred. Eve breathed a sigh of relief.

"There's your answer," Auto replied.

McCrea gasped for breath and looked up to see Eve.

"Eve…" he managed to say. "You came back…I told you to leave me,"

"We're not leaving you behind, captain!" Eve said. "I'll free you from this…thing,"

Eve got up and aimed her plasma rifle at one of the wire things that stuck to McCrea's back. However, McCrea stopped her.

"N… no!" McCrea gasped.

Eve lowered her battle rifle and kneeled back down next to McCrea.

"Why can't I free you?" Eve asked the captain.

"Because I'm fused with it," McCrea replied. "If any of the wires are cut or that thing dies, I die with it,"

"No," Eve replied weakly.

This could not be true. Not to McCrea. Eve had fought alongside him, she had rescued him and helped him fight through the army of Covenant sent down to kill them and the crew of the Axiom. But now it seemed that the captain had finally been taken down, like some warrior who was unbeatable on the battlefield but had finally been overwhelmed and defeated.

"Captain," Eve said. "Me and Auto are planning on destroying this ring."

McCrea looked up at Eve.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because it is actually a weapon," Eve replied. "It's actually a super weapon designed to destroy all life in this galaxy. Auto had said we need to detonate the Axiom in order to destroy the ring, but we do not have the code,"

"It's 2552," McCrea said. "The same numbers as the year,"

Suddenly, McCrea let out a grunt and fell forward onto the floor. Then, the wires began pulling him towards the thing.

"Captain!" Eve exclaimed. Eve watched helplessly as the captain was dragged nearer to the thing. He was most likely going to be changed into one of the many Flood soldiers.

"Eve," McCrea managed to say. "Please…cut them,"

A tear came out of Eve's eye and rolled down her cheek. She did not want the captain to be one of the Flood, but she did not want to kill him either. Maybe now, killing him would be the best thing than leaving him to become another Flood soldier intent on killing or infecting anyone who was not already Flood.

Eve raised her plasma rifle and aimed at the wires. Her finger tightened on the trigger. She let out a small sob.

"I'm sorry, captain," she sobbed.

Eve closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.

The barrage of blue blasts cut through the wires as if they were paper. When the wires were cut, McCrea was stirring. His life was slowly slipping away. However, he had one more thing to do.

"Eve," he managed to say as his life drained away bit by bit. "Thank you,"

Finally, McCrea smiled and closed his eyes. He was dead.

Eve sniffed and wiped away another tear from her eye. She had just killed her captain. She felt horrible inside. But in a way, she felt glad as well. At least the captain died painlessly and did not become one of the Flood.

"Eve," Auto said. "I'm so sorry,"

"It's okay," Eve replied. "Let's just go. We have to get to the Axiom."

"Let's go back to the shuttle bay and find a ride there," Auto suggested.

Eve nodded and turned to walk back down the ramp. Their main purpose now was to get to the Axiom, meet up with Wally and then destroy the ship. Eve was wondering about Wally. Wondering if he was alright and he was having a safe journey to the Axiom.

Suddenly, a loud beep filled the room. It came from one of the doors on the left wall. Eve looked down at the door as it opened.

There was Covenant behind the door. Not just one or two, but a huge squad of Grunts and Elites that numbered probably twenty. However, these were different than the normal Grunts and Elites Eve had fought before. They had black armour on that was shiny like silver and some of the Grunts were carrying enormous weapons. These Grunts and Elites were the Special Ops Grunts Eve had learned about during the training on Reach.

The weapons the Grunts were carrying looked like the shape of a wraith, only it was much smaller so it could be held on the Grunts' shoulders and it was much thinner. The handle was massive, about the size of a computer screen. There was gold armour that covered the entire weapon. Through that armour were several small green lights. This weapon was called the Fuel Rod Cannon. It was probably the most destructive weapon used by the Covenant soldiers on foot. It was able to fire plasma projectiles, much like those of a Hunter only not as powerful, up to at least one hundred and sixty five metres away. The Covenant squad ran into the room. Then, one of the Elites spotted Eve and let out a roar and pointed at her. One of the nearby Grunts charged up It's fuel rod cannon. It was ready to fire.

Suddenly, another beep filled the room. Only this time it came from one of the doors on the other side of the room. It opened to reveal a massive group of Flood combat forms. The combat forms charged towards the Covenant, who were taken completely by surprise.

A combat form at the front of the group whacked the Grunt with the Fuel rod cannon, killing it. However, the fuel rod cannon suddenly exploded, sending the Grunt, the combat form and a nearby Elite flying through the air. They landed on the floor in different places around the control centre, dead. A small combat form, armed with a plasma pistol, fired two shots at an Elite, causing It's armour to shine up. The Elite growled and fired a barrage of blasts at the combat form, killing it.

Within a few seconds, a massive gun and hand to hand battle had erupted in the control centre between the Covenant and the Flood. Eve watched all this unfold from the platform. She ducked a plasma projectile from a fuel rod cannon flew over the platform and exploded.

"We need to get out of here," Auto said.

"Hopefully we will in one piece," Eve replied.

Eve ran down the platform and ran over to the walls, since if she tried going right through the heart of the fighting she would most likely end up getting killed. Eve ran as fast as she could along the walls to the door. It beeped loudly and opened. Eve ran through the doorway. Behind her, she could hear the fighting becoming more and more intense. Explosions and gunfire lit up the room and even the corridor which still had light coming from the ceiling.

Eve ran down the small corridor that led from the door to a long corridor about twenty feet ahead. When she reached the longer corridor, she turned right and ran down that one. When she reached the end of this corridor, she turned right again into a much longer corridor. As Eve ran down this one, she could still hear the dangerous battle between the Covenant and the Flood. This corridor most likely led past the control centre.

When Eve reached the end of this corridor, she turned right through a circle area to be faced with a small door. It beeped loudly and opened. Eve walked through the doorway into another long corridor.

BOOM! An explosion brought Eve's attention to the right end of the corridor. At the right end of the corridor was a hole where a door would have been. Parts of it were lying across the floor so it was obvious it had been destroyed. Then, a special ops Grunt came running out the room waving It's arms about in the air in terror. Chasing after it were three unarmed combat forms. One of the combat forms jumped forward, landing in front of the Grunt. It then whacked the creature, killing it and sending it to the floor.

"Don't bother fighting, just run!" Auto said to Eve.

Eve ran left down the corridor. At the other end was the door that led to the top walkway in the ship's hanger. The door beeped loudly as Eve approached. It opened and Eve ran through the doorway.

Eve had been right. She was on the top walkway of the hanger. Eve turned to see the combat forms running up the corridor towards her. Then, the door slammed shut as the combat forms were just metres away. It did not open, even after a few seconds had passed.

"I've disabled the door," Auto said. "That'll slow them down, I hope,"

"Let's just find a ride and get out of here." Eve said.

Eve walked forward to the walkway edge. She looked down and gasped. The hanger was a mess! There was the remains of a crashed drop ship scattered across the floor, along with remains of destroyed banshees, and there were many dead bodies scattered everywhere, both Covenant and Flood. Even among the many dead and destroyed vehicles, the Covenant and Flood were still fighting each other. They were like two sworn enemies who vowed never to surrender until the other had been completely destroyed, no matter what the cost was.

"The hanger's completely wrecked," Auto said in an annoyed tone. "There's no way we will be able to find a way to the Axiom now,"

Eve was not listening to him. She was looking out through the hanger's right entrance. There was something big moving in the darkness outside the ship. Then, the shape came into the hanger. It was a Covenant drop ship. The Covenant drop ship descended until was about twenty feet above the hanger floor. Then, the side doors opened and a squad of four special ops Grunts and a special ops Elite jumped out onto the floor and charged into a nearby battle raging between a group of Jackals and several combat forms armed with plasma rifles.

Then, two more shapes flew into the hanger. However, they were much smaller and had iconic screams coming from their engines. Banshees! Two of them. The banshees flew over the drop ship as the massive craft hovered backwards out of the hanger and flew off into the dark sky. The banshees, flying in mid-air, turned to face the hanger entrance and descended down to the hanger floor. When they hit the floor, the hatches rose up and two more special ops Elites got out of the craft and charged into any nearby battle going on.

"That's it!" Auto exclaimed. "We can use one of the banshees to get to the Axiom!"

"Problem is; how do we get down there?" Eve asked. "We can't take the normal way because the fighting will probably have destroyed them by the time we get down there,"

Eve looked up and down the walkway to try and find a quicker way down to the banshees. There was no way down. Looks like Eve was stu-

BANG! An explosion drew Eve's attention further up the walkway. Something had destroyed one of the pillars, almost cutting it in half. The bottom half had almost broken away from the top half. The two were quickly separating from each other.

Eve ran down the walkway towards the breaking pillar. Just as she reached it, the bottom half broke away from the top half. Eve jumped over the edge of the walkway onto the bottom half of the pillar as it fell down towards the tall rectangle shaped block that came off of the first walkway.

"EVE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Auto yelled.

"It's a quicker way down to the hanger floor!" Eve shouted back.

CRASH! The bottom half of the pillar crashed onto the top of the rectangle block, throwing several Covenant and Flood in all directions across the hanger. However, that was not the end of it. The pillar fell off of the side of the block and landed with an almighty CRASH on the hanger floor.

Luckily, Eve had been on the top of the bottom half when it fell to the floor. She stood up.

"Eve, you are suicidal," Auto said.

"Hey, it was a quicker way down to the banshees," Eve replied.

"Well, can you please use another way that does not involve us getting crushed or killed next time?" Auto said.

Eve smirked.

BOOM! A plasma grenade exploded nearby, killing two combat forms. Eve snapped back into reality and ran towards the banshees. She had to get to them quickly as there was a battle raging between a squad of four Jackals and three combat forms. As she got closer to the two craft, she could see one of the small doors on the hanger wall ahead of her open. Out of the corridor behind the door came a group of special ops Elites and Grunts.

_ROOOOAAAAARRRR!_

Eve looked behind her to see a massive group of combat forms, infection forms and carriers charge out from behind the enormous block. Eve swore under her breath. The wave of Flood followed her, either chasing after Eve, or charging towards the squad of special ops Grunts and Elites on the other side of the banshees or they were going to assist their combat form allies in the battle raging at the banshees.

Finally, Eve reached the banshee. She literally jumped into the vehicle's seat, pulled down the hatch and started the banshee. Seconds later, the iconic screams of the banshee filled the hanger as it lifted up into the air and flew forward. One of the special ops Elites roared and pointed at the banshee. It, along with other Elites and Grunts, fired at the banshee. Thankfully, most of the shots missed. Even an Elite on the end of the top of the block jumped into a turret and fired sets of blasts after Eve's banshee as it flew out of the hanger entrance out into the darkness of the sky. In the hanger behind the banshee the Covenant and Flood engaged in another battle, determined to take control of it.

"That was another close call," Auto said.

"Yeah, it was," Eve replied.

The banshee flew off into the night sky, leaving the battle between the Flood and Covenant on the Truth and Reconciliation behind. It was as if all the troubles of the universe were being left behind to fight among themselves whilst the beings of the universe were starting a new life.

Eve and Auto were almost finished with their mission. All they had to do was meet up with Wally at the Axiom, detonate the ship and leave Halo.


	26. The Final Act

The centre of the bottom of Halo's inner ring surface was desert. Nothing but desert that stretched for miles. This desert resembled one much like the Sahara, only the sand was a dark yellow colour and it on the edge of a sea that resembled the same colour. Probably part of a desert that the sea had managed to swallow up. However, there was one great big difference about the desert this time. It had the Axiom on it.

The Axiom was lying on It's side on the top of an enormous hill. Half of the front of the ship was over the edge of a massive cliff that ran for miles both left and right. Far below it was probably a lower level of desert as it was also the colour of the sand around the Axiom. The ground around the Axiom, that stretched out as far as two thousand feet from the ship, was charcoal black. On the ground at the rear end of the Axiom was another large cliff, only it was made out of sand and there was a small lake below the engines. The crash must have been really powerful in order for it to do that much damage to the landscape.

In the sky a small shape flew towards the Axiom. As it got closer to the massive ship it was revealed to be a banshee. Eve and Auto's banshee. The two had had a lucky escape from the great battle between the Covenant and Flood at the Truth and Reconciliation. Now, they had to finish their job on Halo. Eve and Auto had found a way to detonate the ship, which was by initiating an overload of the ship's fusion engines. Hopefully, and Auto had said it was most likely to work, the explosion of the ship would do enough damage to destroy Halo.

The banshee flew closer and closer to the Axiom. However, a small trail of smoke was coming out behind it from the engines. Then, a small part of one of the engine connections with the main part of the craft fell off.

"Eve, this thing is falling apart!" Auto said in a panicked tone.

"It will hold," Eve replied in a calm voice.

Eve steered the banshee around the front. Her target was the life pod exhaust silos on the side of the ship near the bridge. Hopefully the craft would hold out until then. As the exhaust silos became visible, Eve turned the banshee towards them. However, she was not slowing down.

"We're not going to make it!" Auto said, again in a panicked tone.

"We'll make it," Eve replied calmly.

When they were about one hundred feet from the Axiom, Eve flew the banshee up higher towards the wall above the silos.

"Eve, descend! Descend!" Auto said in an urgent tone.

BOOM! The banshee exploded on the side of the ship. The remains of it were engulfed in fire as they fell down towards the ground far below.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Auto said to Eve in a sardonic tone.

Eve had jumped out of the banshee at the last minute and fallen straight into the exhaust silo. Perfect landing! She smirked as she stood up. That joke she just played on Auto was quite funny. But now was not the time for laughs. They had to get to the bridge and activate the self-destruct sequence to destroy the ship.

Eve walked down the exhaust silo towards the silo at the end. In her hand was the plasma rifle she had obtained from the battle on the Truth and Reconciliation. The silo looked horrible. The floor, the walls, the ceilings were all badly burnt. It was as if a massive fire had swept through the entire ship. It one did, it had certainly left It's mark.

Eve walked out from the silo into a corridor. The corridor looked just as bad as the silo did. Everything was burnt or wrecked. Eve looked left and saw the half-hexagon shaped door closed. No way they were getting to the bridge through that way. Eve walked left down the corridor towards a turning that led right into another corridor. When Eve reached this corridor, she saw it ended at another half-hexagon shaped door just a few metres away in front of her. "There's no way out of here," Eve said.

"Yes there is," Auto replied. "Look on the wall to your right,"

Eve did so and saw a small metal door that was just slightly taller than her. It had a metal cross that started from the door's four inner corners and moved further into the middle of the door to from the cross. It had large gaps between where the crosses lines started and ended. They would have glass, but the crash would have obviously destroyed them. Behind them, Eve could see a long narrow corridor that was almost pitch black, it were not for the small red lights on the ceilings. Though most of them were destroyed so it only just lit up the corridor.

Eve walked towards the door. Thankfully, it was still working. It opened to allow her into the corridor. Eve walked into the corridor. As she headed further down towards the end, she saw another corridor lead left. Eve turned into that corridor. The end of this corridor was more lit up than the one she had just left. Which was a good thing because on the floor, about half-way down the corridor, was a hole. Eve walked up to the hole and looked down. It led to another corridor. The drop was only about a few metres.

Suddenly, a laser flew from one side, of what Eve could see though the hole in the corridor, to the other. Just a second later, a carrier form ambled out from the right and disappeared left, followed by two more. Then, an small boom was heard. An infection form flew out under the hole from the left before moving back in towards the left again, disappearing from view.

"Looks like we're going to have company," Eve said.

Eve kept her finger on the plasma rifle trigger and jumped down the hole into the corridor, landing on her feet. Ahead of her were two sentinels firing at the other carrier and three infection forms. Eve raised her plasma rifle and fired at the carrier, causing it to explode. The infection forms were thrown across the corridor, one landing just a few feet from Eve. Even though infection forms attack the nearest enemy, they seemed no interest in Eve and moved down the corridor towards the sentinels. Eve fired another barrage from her plasma rifle at the infection forms, causing them to explode. Then she aimed at the sentinels and fired on them. The sentinels exploded and fell to the floor, where they burst into flame.

"I'd keep your gun ready," Auto said. "They'll be more where they came from,"

Eve nodded and walked down the corridor towards the turning that led right. When she reached it, she saw she was in another exhaust silo corridor. Again, the floors and silos in this one were really badly burnt or damaged.

Suddenly, a figure ran out from right at the end of the corridor. It was a small combat form. Then another two tall combat forms followed. They were all unarmed. Then, the small combat form spotted Eve and charged towards her. This brought the attention of the other two big combat forms and they charged towards Eve as well.

Eve raised her plasma rifle and fired a barrage of sky blue blasts at the combat forms. The combat forms were hit repeatedly, causing them to lose their arms and flabby parts of their heads. After a few seconds, they fell to the floor, dead. It did not end there. Just a second later, a small swarm of four infection forms moved out from one of the exhaust silos and headed straight towards Eve, who fired on them with her plasma rifle, causing them to explode.

Eve lowered her plasma rifle ran down the corridor towards the end. When she reached it, she turned right into the next corridor. This one also ended at a closed half-hexagon shaped door. Eve walked towards it, hoping to find a way out of the corridor.

She found it. It was a large metal door on the right wall. Unfortunately, it had a red light on it and it looked like it was not going to open easily even though the crash would have damaged it very badly. Eve sighed.

"Great," she muttered. "How the hell are we going to find a way through this area?"

"Try hitting the door with your plasma rifle," Auto suggested. "Maybe that'll-"

BOOM! The door expanded outwards. Eve gasped and took a step back. Then, it hit her. The last time she saw a door do that was when she was inside the structure in the jungle. That was when she first saw the Flood. BOOM! The door expanded outwards further. There was a small gap just visible down the middle of the door. Eve could just see the yellow/brown tentacle hand of a combat form. Yep, the Flood were behind the door alright.

BOOM! The door flew open, breaking in two. One side of the door fell to the floor. The other flew through the air and hit the wall, also almost hitting Eve if she had not ducked. Eve got up and looked down the corridor behind where the door once stood and saw five tall combat forms, two small combat forms and a swarm of twenty infection forms. They spotted Eve and were ready to attack. However, Eve, despite almost being was hit with the side of a door, was ready for them. She raised her plasma rifle and fired at the group of Flood. Five of the combat forms, both of the small and three of the tall, fell to the floor fully dead. Another blast hit one of the infection forms, causing it to explode along with most of the others. Then, Eve's plasma rifle stopped firing. Oh crap! It was out of ammo.

The last two combat forms charged towards Eve. Eve yelped and threw her plasma rifle at one of them, hitting it in the head. The combat form fell to the floor because of the impact. Eve then dived forward, narrowly missing a whack from the other combat form. She got up and ran down the corridor. Behind her, a loud growl filled the air as the combat forms chased after her.

When Eve reached the end of the corridor, she turned right into another corridor. This one was not as long and was most likely to lead to another corridor at It's end. Eve ran down the corridor. A loud growl caused her to quickly look over her shoulder to see the two combat forms still chasing after her.

"I need to find another gun, quickly," Eve said.

"Worry about the gun in a minute," Auto replied. "Right now, just keep running."

Eve turned right into the next corridor. This one was longer than the other two she had just been in. Thankfully, at the end was a door. Hopefully, she would try and lose the combat forms there. Eve ran full speed down the corridor. She urged all the strength into her legs. She wanted to get away from the combat forms. Eve ran on and on down the corridor, but no matter how fast she was running the door seemed to get further and further away.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Eve reached the door. Luckily, this one was still working it opened and Eve ran through the doorway, only to be right in the middle of another battle.

Eve had run into another corridor that was outside the mess hall. However, there was a battle going on. At the left end were two Hunters who were firing projectiles down the other end towards a group of combat forms. Scattered on the floor up and down the corridor were dead combat forms and dead Covenant. The Covenant and the Flood must have been fighting over the ship for some time. Then, a special ops Elite ran out from the mess hall, through a door that had been forces open and fired on the combat forms as they ran out of the corridor behind Eve.

Eve ran towards the forced open door. The Elite did not even bother to stop her. The Covenant were probably more concentrated on the Flood rather than Eve. Eve ran into the mess hall. Some of the tables and seats were broken apart and scattered everywhere. There were several dead bodies lying around. Many of them special ops Grunts. Even though there were many more dead in here, the fighting between the Covenant and the Flood was still going on. Two special ops Grunts, armed with plasma pistols, were near the other end of the room, firing at a swarm of infection forms. They were right in front of another forced open door. Outside was a special ops Elite. It was most likely keeping guard just in case any more Flood tried to attack from behind.

"We won't be getting out there if these guys here," Auto said.

"I just need to find a gun," Eve replied.

Eve scanned the floor around the dead bodies for a gun. After a few seconds, she found one. It was a plasma pistol lying on the ground near where a Grunt had fallen. Eve ran over to where the plasma pistol lay and picked it up.

"Bad guy!" a high pitched voice squeaked from the other end of the room.

Eve looked towards the other end of the room to see one of the Grunts take out a plasma grenade. It lit the grenade and threw it. Eve dived to her right to get away from the deadly device.

BOOM! The grenade exploded. Eve only just managed to get out of the blast radius of the grenade as it exploded. She got up and fired a barrage of light green blasts at the Grunts. Both were hit and yelled loudly as they flipped backwards onto the floor, dead. Then, the Elite ran in and fired two blasts from It's plasma rifle at Eve. Eve dived behind an overturned table. The blasts shook it as the object as they collided with it. The Elite fired more blasts at the table. Eve prayed that it would not break apart. Then, like someone flicking a switch, the blasts stopped. Eve heard heavy footfalls approach the table. The Elite was walking right to her. Perfect! Eve tightened her grip on the plasma pistol. She was ready to fire.

When the Elite was a few feet from the overturned table, Eve rose up and fired repeatedly at the Elite. The blasts broke through the Elite's armour's shield and killed the creature. It fell forward onto the floor, dead.

"Hopefully that's the last of them," Auto said.

"Same here," Eve replied as she walked out from behind the overturned table.

Eve knelt down next to the body of the Elite and picked up the plasma rifle. Eve threw the plasma pistol onto the floor. From the time she had been on Halo and fought the Covenant, she had learned one thing about Covenant weaponry that was not hard or boring; the plasma rifle was much better than the plasma pistol.

Eve got up and walked towards the forced open door at the other end of the mess hall. When she reached it, she walked out in the corridor outside the mess hall. Again, this corridor had been badly burnt in the crash. Eve looked down the right end of the corridor. Again, this corridor ended at a closed half-hexagon shaped door. Eve looked down towards the other end, which also ended at a closed half-hexagon shaped door. However, she saw another forced open door. That's it! They had reached the bridge!

Eve ran over to the door that led to the bridge. When she reached it, she walked down the small corridor that led to the bridge. When she reached the end of it, she saw the large cube section in the middle. Eve walked around the side of the cube section. She saw the window at the front of the ship. It's glass was gone, obviously shattered when the ship crashed. There was the cylinder panel in front of a small thin rectangular barricade-like panel. Eve walked up to the panel and squeezed her shoulder. Auto's data cord rose up out of her shoulder. Eve took the data cord in her fingers and placed it in a small slot on the side of the cylinder panel. Auto's purple, seven inch high avatar rose up from the top of the panel.

"I leave home for a few days and look what happens," he said as he surveyed the bridge.

"Can you still activate the self-destruct sequence?" Eve asked him.

"Yes," Auto replied. "Give me a moment, it won't take long,"

Auto disappeared inside the cylinder panel. Eve sighed and scanned the bridge. She had not seen Wally, or heard from him for that matter. She was worried about him. She was hoping he was okay since he did tell her that the sentinels would be after them so ho was going to lead them away to allow Eve to rescue captain McCrea. Hopefully, the sentinels had not captured or killed him.

Auto's avatar rose up out of the panel.

"Alright, It's done," he said.

The top of the rectangular panel behind Auto's cylinder panel opened up. A blue haze came out of it. Then, in red letters, came the words "Self-destruct sequence initiated". Then, a timer, also in red, appeared below the red letters. It was on 16:35.

"That should plenty of time to find a drop ship and get out of here," Auto said.

Eve nodded and went to press a button on the side of the cylinder panel to release Auto.

CLANK! Eve wheeled round and fired a shot from her plasma rifle at the side of the top of the bridge's large window. Something moved on the outside of the ship just above the window.

"Who's there?" Eve demanded.

"Eve?" A voice said.

A figure hovered down from the side of the ship into the bridge. It was Wally.

"Oh, Wally," Eve said, relieved as she lowered her plasma rifle. "Sorry, I thought you were Flood or something,"

"It's okay," Wally replied as he landed on the floor in front of Eve.

Wally looked around the bridge and noticed someone was missing.

"Where's your captain?" he asked.

Eve heaved a heavy sigh.

"He did not make it," she replied.

Wally nodded. It was like he was reading her mind. He could almost imagine what happened to him.

"I am sorry, Eve," he said.

"It's okay," Eve replied.

"Have you managed to activate the self-destruct sequence?" Wally asked.

"Yep," Auto replied. "I've just activated it. Now we just have to find a way off this ship,"

_"I'm afraid that's out of the question,"_ another voice said.

That voice was recognizable the moment the three heard it. The voice was Juggernaut's.

"Oh, hell," Auto groaned.

_"Ridiculous,"_ came Juggernaut's voice again. _"I find it absolutely ridiculous that you imbue an A.I. with such a wealth of knowledge! Were you not worried it might be captured? Or even destroyed?"_

"He's in the ship's data arrays!" Auto exclaimed. "A local tap!"

Juggernaut had found his way to the ship after repairing the pulse generators. He was in the ship's engine room. Probably after the hangers, it was the biggest room on the entire ship. There were two enormous wall-like parts in the room that were connected to each other, almost cutting the room in two. Both ends of the engine room had many walkways to allow workers to get from one level on one side of the engine room to the other and even get them from one side of the engine room to the other.

On the first walkway on both sides of the engine room were several computer consoles. Juggernaut was at the right end, scanning one of the consoles.

_"You cannot imagine how exciting this is,"_ he said as he fired a blue laser from his hand at the console in front of him. A blue orb came out and hovered over to Juggernaut's hand, where it disappeared. Most likely into some kind of trans-dimensional pocket. _"To have a record of all of our lost time! Human history? Ooh, fascinating."_

Juggernaut hovered up from the walkway he was on up to another console on a top walkway where there was another console, though this time it was for the engines. Juggernaut fired another blue laser at the console. Another blue orb hovered out.

_"Oh, how I will enjoy every moment of It's categorization!" _he said as the orb disappeared inside his open hand. _"And to think you would destroy this installation, as well as this record. I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words."_

Eve raised her plasma rifle and aimed it around the bridge, expecting Juggernaut to suddenly appear and attack them.

"NO!" Auto yelled. "Damn! He's shut off the stopped the self-destruct sequence!"

_"Why do you continue to fight me and my sentinels, Reclaimer?" _Juggernaut said over the ship's com._ "You cannot win! Even with the help of Wally! Give me the construct and I will endeavour to make sure yours and Wally's deaths relatively painless and-"_

Juggernaut's voice suddenly cut off.

"At least the ship's com channels are still working," Auto said.

Suddenly, four shapes rose up from below the window. Eve, Wally and Auto looked out the window at the shapes. They were sentinels. The sentinels aimed their lasers at the three and pushed Eve to the floor, narrowly missing a blast as it hit the wall of the bridge's cube. Eve then quickly rose up and fired four shots from her plasma rifle at each sentinel. The sentinels exploded and fell down below the window, disappearing from view.

"That was close," Auto said.

"What are we going to do?" Wally asked as he and Eve got up from the floor. "Juggernaut has stopped any chance of us activating your ship's self-destruct!"

"Calm down, Wally," Eve replied. "We'll just have to find another way to detonate the ship. Auto, where exactly is Juggernaut?"

"I'm just going through the ship's com channels." Auto said. "I've detected his one…. He's in the engine room! He must be trying to take the core offline! If he does that, I won't be able to activate the self-destruct sequence at all. I don't know what to do,"

"Wait!" Eve exclaimed. "You said he was in the engine room, right?"

"Yes," Auto replied. "Why, we won't be able to activate the self-destruct…"

Auto was cut off when he saw Eve smile at him. He knew exactly what she meant.

"It's suicidal, Eve," he said.

"Like I've said before, sometimes you have to be suicidal to live," Eve replied.

"Alright," Auto said. "I'm going with you,"

Eve nodded and pressed the button on the side of the panel. Auto's avatar instantly disappeared. Then, the top of the panel opened up and Auto's data cord rose up out of the panel. Eve grabbed it and placed it on her shoulders. The data cord sunk into her shoulder like quicksand. Eve then turned to Wally.

"Let's go," she said.

Wally nodded and followed Eve as they ran out of the bridge, down the short corridor and came out into the main corridor that led to the bridge.

"Okay, which way do we go from here?" Eve asked herself as he looked up and down the corridor.

"There," Wally said, pointing down the corridor towards the half-hexagon shaped door at the other end.

Eve looked to where he was pointing and saw another forced open door on the right wall of the corridor. It had been mostly concealed behind a kind of railing/pillar on the side of the wall.

Eve ran over to the door; Wally followed. When they reached it, they found a ramp lead up to another corridor. The two ran up the ramp and down the corridor up towards another forced open door at the end. However, when the two were near the door, a blast shot from the left to the right of a corridor that the door led to. Then, four more blasts flew from both sides to the other. A Grunt's yell was heard a second later. There was another battle going on.

"Stay behind me," Eve whispered to Wally, who nodded.

Eve raised her plasma rifle and, cautiously, stepped towards the door. Another blast flew from the right to the left. Then, a loud growl was heard and an unarmed tall combat form ran from the left side of the corridor towards the right side. Six infection forms and two small combat forms, armed with plasma pistols, followed the tall combat form.

"Looks like the Covenant and Flood are still going at it," Auto said.

"Don't worry," Eve replied. "We won't stop here. Wally stay close to me,"

"Okay," Wally said.

Eve ran out into the corridor; Wally followed. Eve looked down towards the left end and saw just a closed half-hexagon shaped door. There were no railing/pillars on the walls so the two could not see smaller doors. They were not going that way. The two looked down towards the right end of the corridor. There was a dead special ops Grunt lying on the floor. Around it were two more special ops Grunts armed with needlers and a special ops Elite armed with a plasma rifle. They were fighting the combat forms and three infection forms.

"Stay behind me," Eve said to Wally, who replied with a nod.

Eve raised her plasma rifle and fired a barrage of sky blue blasts down the corridor at the Flood and Covenant. She managed to hit and kill the tall combat form and kill both of the Grunts. However, when the Grunts had been killed, the Elite growled and took out a plasma grenade, lit it and threw it down the corridor towards Eve. Luckily, Eve saw it coming and smacked it back down the corridor towards the fight with her plasma rifle. The Elite was too busy trying to pull one of the infection forms of It's chest to notice the grenade land near on the floor next to It's foot.

BOOM! The grenade exploded. The grenade's explosion caused the three infection forms to explode. The Elite and two small combat forms were sent flying up the corridor towards Wally and Eve. They landed on the floor just a few feet in front of the two.

"Nice one, Eve," Wally said.

"Thanks," Eve replied.

The two ran on down the corridor towards a closed half-hexagon shaped door at the end. When they reached the door, they found another forced open door on the left wall lead into a corridor. The two ran down the corridor towards the end which led into a left turning. The two ran down the next corridor. At the end was a closed door, which surprised the two. However, as the two ran further down the corridor, they saw another door on the right wall. This one was fully working, as they could see by the green light on the front of it. The two walked towards the door, causing it to open.

Eve recognized the room that was on the other side of the door. They were in a cryo-tube room. However, this one was much different than the one Eve had been in when the Axiom was under attack. The cryo-tubes were lined up about one metre apart from each other at both ides of the room underneath a railing that was about twelve feet above the floor also at both sides of the room. There was a control room sticking out from the wall Wally ad Eve were at but it had some kind of corridor, which was connected to the ceiling and had two glass windows along the side of it leading from where the corridor started to the end of it, lead from the control room to a closed door on the wall near the ceiling at the other end of the room.

BOOM! An explosion caused the glass of one of the cryo-tubes, on the right side of the room, to shatter. A Flood combat form jumped down from the railing above the shattered cryo-tube onto the floor. Then a beam flew out from the left and hit the combat form in the chest, fully killing it.

"Stay close to me Wally," Eve said to Wally.

The two ran into the room. There were dead Flood and sentinel parts lying all over the floor. Two infection forms fell down from the room's right railing and headed straight for Wally and Eve. Eve fired two shots at them from her plasma rifle, killing them. Then, she fired three shots at a sentinel that had just killed another combat form. The sentinel fell to the floor and exploded into a fire.

Wally grabbed Eve by the arm and activated his anti-gravity boots. He hovered up to the railing and set Eve down on it before landing next to her. The railing led to the wall, but there was a wide ledge on the wall that stuck out about three feet. The two were about to walk down the railing when Wally stopped Eve.

"Look," he said, pointing over into the long corridor that led from the control room to the wall at the back of the room.

Two sentinels hovered down the corridor towards the control room. Just s they reached it, a door on the right wall of the control room opened and four combat forms, armed with M6C pistols, ran out. They fired on the sentinels, who retaliated by firing at the combat forms with their lasers.

"Stay behind me," Eve said to Wally, who replied with a nod.

Eve raised her plasma rifle and ran down the railing; Wally followed. The two ran over the ledge and into the corridor through a side entrance near the entrance to the control room. Eve fired a barrage of blue blasts into the control room, killing the last two combat forms and destroying the one remaining sentinel. The two then ran into the control room.

"Where do we go now," Eve asked.

"Through the door on the left," Auto replied.

Eve looked towards the left wall of the control room and saw another door there. It was still working, as it had the green light on it, and it was closed. BOOM! A massive explosion shook the room. Wally looked out of the control room's window to see the burning remains of the door into the cryo-tube room scattered all over the floor. Then, six combat forms ran in, followed by two carriers.

"C'mon," Eve said.

Eve ran over to the door, causing to open to reveal a long corridor behind it. Eve ran down the corridor; Wally followed. The two ran towards the end of this corridor. Wally quickly glanced over his shoulder to see the door, which had closed, opening again. However, this time four of the combat forms ran out of the control room down the corridor after them.

"They're chasing us!" Wally exclaimed.

Eve looked over her shoulder and saw the combat forms running up the corridor after them. She skidded to a halt and spun round. Wally skidded to a halt and hid behind Eve as she raised her plasma rifle and fired down the corridor at the combat forms. All were hit and fell to the floor dead. Eve then fired another shot at the door. It hit the light and caused the door to shut.

"Hopefully that'll stop them, for a while at least," Auto said.

Eve turned to face Wally.

"Wally," she said. "I thought you promised me that you would…fight them,"

"Eve…" Wally began but Eve cut him off.

"No, don't 'Eve' me, okay?" she interrupted. "Look, Wally. When someone makes me a promise, I expect them to keep it. But you haven't kept yours. I know you fear the Flood, but you will have to face them eventually. Just please try and do that,"

Eve walked past Wally and turned left into the next corridor. Wally sighed. He felt really guilty inside. He had made a promise to Eve about defending himself when the Flood were near. But he had not kept it. She was right. He was going to have to face his fears soon, otherwise he was going to stuck being scared of the Flood for the rest of his life. Wally sighed again and turned into the next corridor to follow Eve.

The two walked towards another working door at the end of the corridor. However, when they reached it and it opened, they saw two sentinels hovering in the middle of the corridor next to a half-hexagon shaped door that only had the top half closed. The lower half's remains were scattered down the corridor and in the corridor junction behind the door. One of the sentinels hovered down to the ground and fired a laser into the junction. Then, a small swarm of ten infection forms moved out from the corridor junction and jumped onto the sentinels. Eve raised her plasma rifle and fired two shots at each sentinel. Both sentinels exploded and fell to the floor burning piles of wreckage, also killing six of the infection forms. Eve then fired a shot each at the infection forms, killing them as well.

Wally and Eve ran down the corridor towards the half closed door. They squatted down and walked underneath it into the corridor junction They then stood. There was another corridor leading down to another door. The two ran down the corridor towards the door. It opened when they reached it.

The two were revealed with a large room with a wide and long computer panel, that started about four feet from the door, going down the middle of the room and ended about four feet from a door on the other side of the room. Along the walls were weapons in slots. They were in an armoury. Most of the slots that held the weapons were empty. Even the grenade slots were empty. Luckily, on the floor near the right wall was an open box on It's side. Scattered a few feet in front of it were several fragmentation grenades. Among the pile were about two plasma grenades.

"Pick those up, Eve" Auto said. "We'll need them for when we're in the engine room,"

Eve nodded and walked over to where the grenades lay on the floor. She knelt down and picked up some of the grenades. Wally came over and picked up the two plasma grenades. He then pressed a button on the side of the bulge on his arm. The side of the bulge opened up, revealing a small open space inside it. Wally placed the two plasma grenades inside the bulge. "You can place the rest in here if you want to," Wally said to Eve.

"Thank you," Eve replied.

Eve placed the four fragmentation grenades she had picked up from the floor in the open space in the bulge on Wally's arm. The opening then closed and became the side of the bulge again.

"How far are we from the engine room?" Eve asked Auto.

"Not far," Auto replied. "It's just a few corridors away."

BOOM! The door at the other end of the room exploded. The remains flew through the air and landed across the floor around the room. Then, a blast flew from the right to the left. Wally and Eve ran over to the doorway and looked out. The doorway led into a corridor that had another battle raging in it. Eve poked her head out from the armoury and looked up and down the corridor. At the right end of the corridor, in front of a corridor junction, were two Hunters, a special ops Elite, that was armed with a plasma rifle, and two special ops Grunts, who were armed with fuel rod cannons. The Covenant were firing down at a group of five sentinels at the right end of the corridor that had a right turning lead off into another corridor.

"We'll need to fight hard to get through these enemies," Auto said.

"Too bad we can't use the grenades," Wally said.

"We'll get through them," Eve said. "Wally, stay behind me,"

Wally nodded.

Eve raised her plasma rifle and ran into the corridor, Wally followed. Eve ran down towards the left end and fired at the Covenant. The Grunts were hit and flipped backwards onto the floor, dead.

Suddenly, Eve felt a burning pain on her back. She yelled in pain and fell over, dropping her plasma rifle. Wally grabbed Eve and her plasma rifle. He pulled her behind a nearby pillar/railing. He rested her up against the wall and knelt down beside her.

"Where does it hurt?" Wally asked Eve.

"On my back," Eve replied.

Wally gently pushed Eve onto her side. He gasped when he saw a large burn mark down the back of her suit. Thank God she had her suit's shield, at which the holographic meter appeared and the level began to fill the empty bar again, or she would have been killed. After a few seconds, Eve's shield was fully recharged again. She stood up and poked her head down the corridor. The special ops Elite was taking out a plasma grenade. Unless he was a very good thrower, it was obvious the grenade would only be targeted at her and Wally.

"Wally, I need one of the grenades, quick," Eve said to him.

Wally nodded as he stood up and pressed a button on the side of the bulge. The side of the bulge opened up to reveal the pile of grenades. Wally took out one of the fragmentation grenades and handed it to Eve. Eve pulled the pin off of the grenade and threw it down the corridor at the Elite just as the alien was about to throw his grenade.

BOOM! The fragmentation grenade exploded. BOOM! Another explosion followed, which lit up the corridor with a sky blue colour. A loud roar of pain was heard. Eve peeked her head from behind the pillar/railing to see the Hunters and the Elite lying dead on the floor.

"Alright, c'mon," Eve said to Wally as he handed Eve her plasma rifle.

The two dashed out from behind the pillar/railing down the corridor towards the junction at the end. As they approached the junction, they saw a forced open door on the left wall leading into a corridor. Above it on the wall was the words Engine room. They had made it to the engine room.

"I've disabled the corridor's door," Auto said.

Wally and Eve looked back down the corridor to see a closed half-hexagon shaped door about twenty feet away. On the other side, through the door's glass, the two could see the sentinels firing down the turning. It became obvious at what they were firing at when a combat form jumped out from the turning and whacked one of the sentinels, causing it to hit the floor and explode.

Wally and Eve ran down the corridor from the forced open door. The end of the corridor turned right into another. The two turned right into that corridor and ran down that one towards a closed door at the end. As the two approached it, the door opened. The two ran through the open doorway.

The two were in a huge room with walkway levels at the left and right ends, two huge wall-like parts in the middle of the room that were connected to each other, almost cutting the room in two. Also, there was a walkway along the side of one of the wall-like parts near the top and it had a path lead through a large gap in the wall-like part to another walkway, on the other side of the other wall-like part, that was also near the top of It's wall-like part. Also, there were four long and wide large metal rectangular-shaped exhaust couplings that went into a large shaft underneath the walkways. There were four of them, two on each side. They started from the walls above the walkways at the left and right sides of the rooms. Along the two walkways that went across the sides of the large wall-like parts were consoles, also two on each side.

"We've made it," Auto said through his com. "Now we can detonate the ship," "I don't like this," Wally said as he scanned the engine room

"Why?" Eve asked him.

"Juggernaut is nowhere to be seen," Wally replied. "And he would have brought sentinels with him."

"That's not the worst of what he's done," Auto said through his com. "He's disabled all of the command access. I can't restart the countdown, so there's only one remaining option."

Suddenly, Wally pushed Eve to the floor and jumped on top of her to shield her body with his. A beam tore across the floor, creating a burn mark. Wally and Eve looked up and saw two sentinels hovering several metres in the air. The small light next to the red to yellow and then blue, meaning the sentinels were ready to fire again.

Before Eve could react, Wally grabbed her and flew up into the air. Just in time because just as they left the ground, the sentinels fired at where they were on the ground. Wally shot up towards the walkway on the left wall-like part. Eve looked below and saw the two sentinels fly up towards them. Eve aimed her plasma rifle and fired down at them. The sentinels exploded and fell back down towards the floor.

Wally set Eve and himself down on the right end of the walkway near a console when they reached it.

"Okay now we need to find a way to detonate the ship," Eve said.

"I've got it," Auto piped up. "Eve, go up to the console and activate the exhaust couplings,"

"What good will that do?" Eve asked Auto.

"Just trust me," Auto answered. "We don't have enough time,"

Eve knew Auto was right. They had very little time before Juggernaut found a way to turn off the core for good. If he did that, then their plans of destroying Halo would be shattered. Eve ran over to the nearest console and pressed a small button.

An alarm rang out in the engine room as the exhaust coupling, below the part of the walkway where the console was, moved out from the shaft below the walkway.

"Good," Auto said. "Now you just need to throw a grenade into the shaft so it detonates and destroys the shaft."

"I'll help you," Wally said.

Wally grabbed Eve under the shoulders and hovered into the air. He then flew off of the walkway before turning round and descended a few feet until the two were a few metres from the shaft. The shaft had two doors inside it at the front which lifted up to reveal an orange/red/yellow coloured furnace. That was the target. Wally, taking an arm out from under one of Eve's shoulders and pressed on the side of his bulge. The bulge's side opened up to reveal the pile of grenades. Wally took out one of the fragmentation grenades and handed it to Eve. Eve pulled off the pin and threw it at the furnace. The grenade bounced off the top of one of the doors and went into the furnace.

BOOM! The grenade exploded inside the furnace. BOOM! The entire shaft suddenly blew up, throwing the two doors and a few large chunks of the inside of the shaft through the air to rain hell down on those on the ground. The alarm rang out through the engine room again as the exhaust coupling moved back towards shaft.

"Good work, guys," Auto said through his com. "Fusion reactor number one destroyed. Now destroy the other three so the engines detonate."

Wally flew over to the other end of the walkway and set Eve down on it. Eve ran over to the console and pressed a button on it. The alarm rang out once again as the exhaust coupling moved back from the shaft towards the wall. Wally then hovered over Eve and picked her up under the shoulders again. Wally flew over to the other shaft and handed Eve another fragmentation grenade. Eve pulled off the pin and threw it into the shaft as the doors lifted up.

BOOM! The shaft exploded into a fireball. The doors and some of the insides blew off and fell to the floor. The alarm rang out through the engine room again as the exhaust coupling moved forward back towards the silo.

"Good work!" Auto said through his com. "Two of the silos are destroyed. Now we just need to destroy the other two,"

Whilst Auto was speaking, Wally looked down at the engine room's floor. He gasped. The engine room's door opened. Out of the corridor came an enormous wave of Flood. There were loads. Carrier forms, combat forms and infection forms. Then, a large number of sentinels, numbering probably thirty or forty, flew out from the engine room's left and right walkways and fired on the Flood, killing some of them. Those Flood that had weapons fired back, shooting down some of the sentinels.

"We have to be quick," Wally said, nodding down at the battle on the engine floor.

Wally flew up to the walkway and set himself and Eve down on the path. The two ran down the path that went through the middle of the wall-like parts. Half-way down the wall-like parts were two doors. One on the left wall and one on the right wall. BOOM! An explosion erupted on the wall a few feet behind the two. A fire raged out of the hole.

"Oh crap," Eve said as she looked at the fire. "We better hurry before the ship gets blown to pieces."

Wally and Eve continued running down the path towards the other walkway. When they reached it, they saw the other two exhaust couplings lead out from under the walkway towards the wall far ahead of them. Wally and Eve ran left towards a console. When they reached it, Eve pressed a button. The alarm rang out in the engine room as the left exhaust couplings moved out from the shaft. Wally grabbed Eve under her shoulders and flew down in front of the shaft. Wally handed Eve another fragmentation grenade. Eve pulled the pin off and threw it into the shaft as It's doors opened.

BOOM! The shaft exploded, throwing the doors and parts of the inside down to the floor. Once again, the alarm rang out as the exhaust coupling moved back towards the shaft.

"Keep it up," Auto said through his com. "Only one more fusion reactor to go,"

"We're almost there!" Eve exclaimed.

Wally flew over to the walkway and set himself and Eve down onto the path. The two ran towards the right console. On the wall near the console was a door. The two felt a great happy sensation wash over them. They were almost done. All they had to do was destroy this last shaft and then find a way off of the ship and Halo. Wally felt happier then he had ever been before. He was going to Earth with Eve! He knew almost nothing of his own race so everything was going to be new to him when he would get there.

Wally and Eve reached the console.

"This is it," Eve said. "It's time to destroy Halo,"

BOOM! An explosion from the pathway drew the two's attention there. They turned to look at where the explosion had erupted from.

"EVE WATCH OUT!" Auto yelled.

Before Eve could turn her head round, she was pinned to the walkway floor. A hand grabbed her neck and squeezed hard. Eve looked up and saw her attacker. It was Juggernaut.

"YOUR NOT GOING TO DESTROY MY INSTALLATION!" he yelled at Eve. "I'LL KILL ALL THREE OF YOU IF I HAVE TO!"

Eve clenched her fist and threw a punch at Juggernaut, getting him in the eye. Juggernaut yelled in pain and stood up with a hand over his eye. Wally, who had been knocked to the floor by Juggernaut's sudden appearance, scrambled over to Eve.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

Before Eve could reply, Juggernaut kicked Wally right in the stomach. The impact winded Wally and caused him to fall onto the walkway floor, gasping for breath. Eve got up to help Wally but Juggernaut launched another kick at her, getting Eve in the ribs. Eve was also winded and fell to the walkway floor.

Juggernaut laughed as he walked up to Wally, who was still gasping for breath.

"How pathetic," he said. Juggernaut grabbed Wally's chest and held him about a foot off of the walkway floor. "Your still weak like last time, hey Wally,"

Juggernaut then released Wally, causing him to land painfully on his arm on the walkway floor. He then grabbed Wally, held him up and punched his chest several times before grabbing his face and launching a single punch at it. Wally's head snapped backwards and Juggernaut threw him to the floor. Wally did not get up.

"WALLY!" Eve screamed.

Eve felt pure shock run through her. Juggernaut had just killed Wally. Then, blind rage filled Eve. She got up and charged towards Juggernaut. She jumped onto his back and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck in an effort to drag him to the walkway floor. Juggernaut, however, was too quick for Eve. He grabbed her arms and threw her over his body down towards the other end of the walkway. Eve landed a few feet from the other walkway's console. She groaned as she saw Juggernaut walk towards her. When he reached her, he looked down at her.

"You should not have opposed me, Reclaimer," he said as he kneeled down next to Eve. "Now you have to suffer the consequences,"

Eve's eyes were closing. She could not find the strength to keep them open. Her body was already trying to recover from the impact of being kicked and thrown to the walkway floor. Juggernaut grabbed Eve by the throat. His grip felt stronger than carbon steel. He then lifted Eve several inches off of the ground. Eve gasped for breath. Her vision was fading. Her breaths were getting weaker. It looked like the end of her. All Eve, Auto and Wally had worked for was gone.

"JUGGERNAUT!" someone behind Juggernaut yelled.

Juggernaut looked behind him to see Wally standing there.

"Let her go!" Wally growled.

Juggernaut cackled at Wally's words.

"And what are you going to do if I don't?" Juggernaut asked in a mocking tone.

"This," Wally replied.

Before Juggernaut could react, Wally raised the arm with the bulge and fired a red laser. Juggernaut was taken completely by surprise and the laser hit him in the chest. Juggernaut yelled as he flew backwards, dropping Eve when he was hit, and hit the console.

"Eve!" Wally exclaimed as he ran over to her. Wally knelt down beside her.

Please don't be dead! Wally thought Please be okay!

Suddenly, Wally heard a growl. He turned to see Juggernaut standing up from the walkway floor around the console. He had a look of utmost fury on his face. Pure hatred was running through him. He was going to make Wally pay for shooting him with his laser.

"I'll kill you!" Juggernaut hissed as Juggernaut took a step towards Wally.

BOOM! The walkway floor around the console grinded loudly as something exploded on the bottom of it. Juggernaut fell back onto the console. Then, the metal around the console grinded loudly. Juggernaut realised what was happening and was about to activate his suit's boots.

Then, the metal floor around the console snapped. Juggernaut screamed as he fell down to the floor. He hit the floor, landing painfully on his chest. He groaned as he got up. Then, he looked up and saw the console and metal floor falling towards him. Juggernaut screamed as the massive objects fell towards him. Then, like someone had flicked a switch, his screaming abruptly stopped.

Wally looked away when the console and metal floor landed on Juggernaut. He may have killed Juggernaut, but he was on his own. Eve was dead.

Suddenly, Wally heard something. It sounded like a stir. It was coming from behind him. Wally turned to see Eve sat up with a hand on the side of her head.

"Eve!" Wally exclaimed.

Wally ran over to Eve and embraced her in a tight hug. Eve was startled by this. However, she soon wrapped her arms around Wally. A tear came out of her eye and rolled down her face.

"Wally," she said, though it was muffled. Wally moved back from her a little to hear her better. "Thank you," she continued. "You saved my life."

"Well you've saved me," Wally replied. "And, I've used my laser. I didn't want to but he was going to kill you,"

"Oh, Wally," Eve said in happiness, causing more tears to fall down her face. "Thank you,"

Then, Eve moved towards Wally. Her jaw cupped with his. Wally went wide-eyed, taken completely by surprise by this. He heard a little moan escape from Eve. Then, they broke free from each other. Wally blushed.

He and Eve had kissed.

"Thanks, Wally," Auto said. "Now let's destroy the last shaft,"

Wally and Eve nodded and stood up. Wally activated his boots and hovered over Eve. He picked her up under the shoulders and flew down in front of the shaft. Wally handed Eve a plasma grenade. She pressed her thumb down on the device's orange thunderbolt and threw the grenade into the shaft as the doors lifted up.

BOOM! The shaft exploded. Another alarm rang out in the engine room as the exhaust coupling moved back towards the shaft. Then, the engine room went a red colour.

"That's it!" Auto exclaimed. "We've done it! The engine's gone critical!"

"Where do we go now?" Eve asked Auto.

"That door near the right console," Auto said. "It leads to an elevator that'll take us to the warthog bay. Don't ask questions guys, let's just get moving,"

Wally flew back over to the walkway and set himself and Eve down on it. The two ran over to the door near the right console. It opened as they approached it. The two ran through the open doorway into the corridor behind it. At the end of the corridor was another door. Wally and Eve ran down the corridor towards it. However, when they reached it, the door was closed and had a red light on it.

"What are we going to do?" Eve said. "We're trapped."

"I'll try and unlock the door," Auto replied.

BOOM! The door exploded, throwing Wally and Eve to the floor. Eve groaned as she lifted herself up from the floor. Wally did the same.

"You okay?" Eve asked Wally.

"Yes, I'm fine," Wally replied.

The two stood up and looked through the doorway where the door had once stood. There were several burning pieces of the door scattered down the corridor and in the room that was behind the door. Wally and Eve ran through the open doorway into the room. It was a large room and had a large square shaped hole in front of the two. Then, a large square shaped metal platform descended into the room. It was an elevator. On the elevator were Covenant. Three special ops Grunts and a special ops Elite. The Elite roared as he spotted the two but before he could fire on them, Eve raised her plasma and fired a barrage of sky blue blasts at the Covenant squad. The Elite was hit repeatedly until It's armour's shield broke and it fell to the elevator floor, dead. The Grunts were hit and yelled as they either fell sideways or flipped backwards, dead.

"Alright, quick!" Auto exclaimed. "Onto the elevator!"

Wally and Eve ran forward onto the elevator. When they boarded it, a large metal door with a cross going through the middle of it descended down and blocked the two off from the room. The two looked up and saw the rest of the elevator shaft. At the top was a hole that led into the sky outside.

Wally and Eve jolted slightly as the elevator rose up the shaft.

"Auto to Echo 419. Come in Echo 419," Auto said through his com.

"Roger, Auto. I read you five by five,"

"The Axiom's engines are going critical, Foehammer," Auto said. "Request immediate extraction! We'll grab a ride and meet you at external access junction 4C."

"Affirmative, Auto. Hey, things are getting noisy down there, everything okay?"

"Negative! Negative!" Auto replied in a panic tone. "We have a wildcat destabilization of the ship's fusion drive core! The engines must have sustained more damage than we thought!"

The elevator jolted slightly again as it stopped outside a large square shaped hole that led into a warthog bay. Wally and Eve ran off of the elevator into the warthog bay. Along the side of the walls were several warthogs. One at the right end was turned on It's side. Wally and Eve ran over to the nearest one. Eve got into the driver's seat whilst Wally jumped into the passenger seat.

"Auto, how long do we have until the ship explodes?" Eve asked Auto.

"Analysing," Auto replied. "We have six minutes until the fusion drive explodes. We need to go now,"

Eve started the warthog. The engine hummed. The tires screeched loudly as Eve drove the warthog down the vehicle bay through a large circle shaped opening at the back wall. The warthog came out at the bottom of a curved ramp. Just a few feet ahead of the warthog were several Covenant special ops Grunts and Elites. They spotted the two and fired on the warthog. The blasts hit the side of the vehicle, causing it to shake. Eve drove away from the Covenant as fast as she could.

"That was close," Eve said.

"Look out!" Wally shouted, pointing ahead.

A massive swarm of infection forms appeared from behind the top of the curved ramp. The warthog shook wildly as it ran over them. The explosions of some of them could be heard by the two, but were hard to hear as a few explosions at the bottom of the ramp occurred.

Eve screeched the warthog to a halt as it reached the top of the ramp. Ahead of them was a large and wide corridor-like area of the ship. There were many small tower-like structures ahead of them and several tunnel-like paths that led underneath the floor and then back up to the floor. Along the side of the massive walls were long railing paths that stretched on all the way to the other end.

"C'mon, Eve. Go!" Auto said through his com.

Eve drove the warthog forward down the ramp towards the corridor floor. Another explosion blew up part of the floor as they reach it. Eve swerved the warthog around the explosion into one of the tunnel paths that led underneath the floor. The warthog drove down the slope of the path. Then, the path rose up again as it led back up to the floor. Eve drove the warthog up the path. The vehicle flew out of the path and landed with a crash on the floor. Luckily, the warthog was still on It's wheels.

Eve drove the warthog forward. She swerved left around a tower-like structure and then right round another. The second tower exploded moments later. It collapsed and landed on the floor.

"Up ahead!" Wally shouted pointing out ahead of the warthog, causing Eve to bring the warthog to a screeching halt.

A group of four sentinels were fighting a group of Flood combat forms. They were on some kind of ramp. On both sides of the ramp was another of the tunnel paths that led under the floor and then came back up to the surface again. Eve would not have to drive down the tunnel paths in case there were more enemies down there. The only other way was over the ramp. Eve breathed in and slammed her foot down on the accelerator.

The warthog shot forward towards the ramp. The sentinels and Flood were busy fighting each other to notice the warthog coming towards them. BOOM! One of the sentinels exploded as the warthog collided with it whilst driving up the ramp. Two of the combat forms were sent flying forward when the warthog hit them. The warthog flew through the air and landed on another small ramp that led out of the wide corridor area.

BOOM! Two explosions erupted a few metres in front of the warthog as Eve drove into another wide and long corridor, only this time it was curved like an S. Eve drove left into the curved corridor, narrowly missing a pillar with two combat forms on it. Eve swerved right in the next curve where a group of carrier and combat forms had just come out from a large hole in the wall. The warthog hit one of the carrier, causing it to fall to the floor and swell up. Eve drove the warthog away from the group of Flood as fast as she could, narrowly missing the infection forms as the carrier exploded.

The warthog swerved around another pillar and drove on. Eventually, it came to the top of another ramp looking over another long and wide corridor like area. There were many of the tower-like structures, only this time many of them were spaced at least ten metres from each other because they had large platforms on top of them. The platforms formed some kind of path that went all the way down the wide corridor area, probably towards the other end. However, there was a problem for Wally and Eve. In order to get to the path around the bottom of the tower-like structures, Eve had to drive the warthog around some kind of barricade. That would take too long because they did not know if any Flood or Covenant or sentinels were hiding around or behind the barricade waiting to kill anyone that went by.

"Auto, how long do we have left?" Eve asked Auto.

"Three minutes and forty eight seconds!" Auto replied. "C'mon, we have to get moving!"

Eve nodded and slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The warthog shot forward down the path towards the barricade. When they were a few metres from it, an enormous explosion behind the barricade threw four combat forms through the air. The explosion also caused a nearby tower, that was not connected to the platform paths, to sway.

"Drive right!" Wally shouted.

Eve skidded the warthog to a halt on It's side. She then drove the warthog forward towards the side of a small ramp that led to the railing path. The warthog shook as it drove up the ramp and came onto the railing path. Eve then skidded the warthog sideways and it hit the wall but was facing in the direction of the end of the wide corridor area. Eve drove the warthog down the railing path towards the end of the wide corridor area. Wally looked out at the tower-like structures as they drove past them. Several explosions erupted from them, causing many of the towers to sway and collapse. As the warthog was about fifty metres from the end of the railing path, an explosion several metres ahead of the warthog blew a hole in the path. Eve slammed her foot down on the brake but the warthog had been going too fast. It drove up the side of the path, that had been bent upwards by the explosion, and flew through the air. The warthog landed with a crash as it came back onto the railing path. Eve then slammed her foot down onto the accelerator and drove the warthog forward towards the end of the path.

"Auto to Echo 419 are you nearby, over?" Auto said through his com.

"Roger, Auto. I've got a fix on your signal. I'm coming in now,"

"How long do we have left?" Eve asked Auto.

"Two minutes and fifty eight seconds." Auto replied.

"Oh, no," Eve said. "Are we almost at external junction 4C?"

"Almost," Auto replied. "Just about another one hundred metres ahead,"

Eve drove the warthog forward towards the end of the path. Then, she turned left and drove the warthog off of the path onto the corridor floor. She then drove the warthog forward again up a ramp that led into another wide corridor, except this one had no towers or platforms or railing paths. Eve drove the warthog down the corridor towards a wide platform on the other side of a large circle shaped opening. When the warthog came out onto the platform, Eve slammed her foot down on the brake. Wally and Eve got off and looked up at the sky. They were near the hangers on the side of the ship near where the engines were.

"Come on, Echo 419," Eve whispered as she scanned the sky. "Where are you?"

"There!" Wally exclaimed, pointing up at the sky.

Eve looked over to where Wally was pointing. Coming down towards the ship was a pelican. Echo 419's pelican! They were going to be rescued.

"I see you guys. I'm coming in now,"

Echo 419's pelican was just a few thousand feet from the ship. Eve wanted to jump and shout in joy. They were going to be saved! They were going to esc-wait a second!

Two shapes were following her. They were instantly recognizable. Covenant banshees.

_"Auto to Echo 419! There are two Covenant banshees approaching you on your six! Evade! Say again, Evade!"_ Auto said through his com.

Then, the worst happened. The two banshees fired a barrage of plasma blasts at the pelican from their cannons. The blasts hit the back of the pelican and exploded.

_"NOO! I'm hit! Mayday! Mayday! Air foil structures have been blown to hell! Engine's gone! I can't hold her! I can't hold her!" _

"NO!" Eve yelled as a fire erupted from the back of the pelican, followed by another explosion.

Echo 419's pelican flew below the platform towards the bottom of the ship. Wally and Eve could only watch helplessly as their only way of escape crashed into the side of the Axiom and exploded.

"What are we going to do?" Wally said, hysterically. "We're trapped! We're going to die!"

"How long do we have left?" Eve asked Auto.

No response.

"Auto?" Eve said.

"Guys, I've just done a scan of the ship's inventory." Auto said. "The inventory still shows one Longsword fighter docked in the hanger near the engines. If we move now, we can make it!"

Wally and Eve ran over to the warthog. Eve got back into the driver's seat whilst Wally got back into the passenger seat. Eve started the engine again and drove the warthog forward towards another circle shaped opening at the other end of the platform. When the warthog went through the opening, the two were lucky because an explosion tore through the platform and broke it in two, causing the pieces to fall down the ground thousands of feet below.

Eve drove the warthog down the wide corridor that led from the opening. When she reached the end of it, she turned the warthog right into a slope corridor that went down at a 25 degree angle. The warthog was going so fast that it almost slid down the slope corridor towards the bottom. When the warthog reached the bottom of the corridor, Eve drove it left through another circle shaped opening into another S-curved corridor.

"Auto, how long do we have left?" Eve asked Auto as she drove around the first pillar in the corridor.

"One minute and thirty four seconds until the ship blows," Auto replied.

Eve swerved around the second pillar in the corridor. She carried on driving down the now straight part of the corridor towards a circle shaped opening at the end. Wally looked back down the corridor to see several explosion erupt from the walls and floor. Sentinels and Flood were charging out of some of the holes and began battling each other. Neither were aware that their time was up. Their time on Halo would be over in just one minute and thirty seconds

The warthog jolted as it drove through the opening. It flew through the air, over a ramp and landed in a large room.

The warthog crashed into several overturned ammo barrels, stopping the vehicle completely. Wally and Eve were thrown from the crashed vehicle onto the floor. Eve groaned as she stood up. She scanned the room they were in. It was huge. There was a large square shaped opening at the other end that showed the sky. The warthog was in some kind of path between several barricades that were spaced two metres from each other and were placed along both sides of the path. At the end of the path was a small ramp. In front of the ramp, that was slightly higher and was being held up by railing pillars, was a platform. Half-way down the platform was the shape of the Longsword fighter.

"Wally, come on!" Eve exclaimed, grabbing Wally's arm.

Wally and Eve ran through the gaps between the barrels. Around them, explosions erupted. Then gunfire and grenade explosions followed. As Wally and Eve came from the gaps between the ammo barrels, they saw Covenant, Flood and sentinels fighting each other. A special ops Elite even ran out from behind a barricade with infection forms on it. The Elite roared in pain as it tried to pull off the infection forms, but it was no use. The Elite then dropped dead onto the floor.

Wally and Eve ran past the dead body of the Elite towards the ramp at the end of the path. The two were happy. They were going to make it. They were going to escape Halo and stop any chance of the Flood escaping the ring and any chance of the sentinels activating Halo.

Wally and Eve reached the top of the ramp. Eve climbed up onto the platform and helped Wally up. The two then ran on across the platform towards the Longsword fighter. They were about half-way across the platform when…

_ROOOAAAARRRRR!_

Wally and Eve skidded to a halt and turned round. There was a massive group of combat forms, both big and small, chasing after them.

"Wally, go and bring the ramp down." Eve said to Wally. "I'll hold them off,"

Wally nodded and ran across the platform towards the Longsword fighter. When he reached it, he searched the fighter's 'tail' until he found a control pad near the back of the fighter's 'tail'. He pressed a button. A loud whirring sound was heard. Then, a hole appeared on the bottom of the tail as a ramp lowered down onto the platform. Wally turned round.

"Eve!" he shouted, causing Eve to turn her head in his direction. "Come on, the ramp is down!"

Eve smiled and went to turn to run towards the ship. Suddenly, something wrapped round her arm. Then, something wrapped round her other arm and then her chest. Eve looked behind her to see a combat form, that she had knocked off the platform onto the ramp below, with It's long tentacles wrapped round her. The combat form pulled Eve towards it, causing her to fall to the platform floor. Another combat form wrapped It's tentacles round Eve's arms and bean pulling her towards the edge of the platform.

**"AAAAHHH!"** Eve screamed. **"WALLY! HELP ME!"**

Wally, who was about to board the ship, shot round to see Eve being dragged towards the edge of the walkway.

"EVE!" Wally shouted.

Wally wanted to run and help her. He wanted to save her. But the Flood were there. Sure he had plucked up the courage to use his laser again, but not against the Flood. He was still terrified of them.

Then, a combat form jumped down and knocked Wally down onto the ramp. The combat form stood over Wally. Wally tried to scramble away from the combat form but he was too afraid. The combat form stepped towards Wally, raising It's tentacle hand. Wally went wide-eyed and looked over at Eve. He saw the combat forms pulling her closer towards them. There was just a few feet of platform between Eve and the combat forms. Eve looked up at Wally. It was then he felt hurt and sick inside. He had promised Eve he would face his fear. He promised he would defend himself if faced against danger. He had let her down.

**NO! **

Wally had spent his entire fearing the Flood! Every night he would have nightmares on how they would kill him and make him one of them! Not this time, no. This time, he was going to fulfil his promise.

As the combat form went to bring It's tentacle hand down onto Wally, It was stopped. Wally's right hand had grabbed the arm just as it was about to strike. Wally then stood up and raised his other arm. The front of the bulge opened up, revealing a dark silo inside it.

Eve was still trying to break free from the combat forms' tentacles. But it was no use. They were thick steel that had glued themselves to her. No matter how much she squirmed or kicked or wriggled, she could not escape. Eve was now only a few feet from the combat forms. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth.

"This is it, Auto," she whispered.

"It's been great working with you, Eve," Auto replied.

They both knew the end was near. Eve was hoping she would be killed, even if it was a slow and painful death, rather than become one of the Flood. She waited for the end.

It never came.

All of a sudden, Eve felt the tentacles release her. Were they infecting her? Eve slowly opened her eyes to see Wally standing over her. And he was firing his laser at a group of Flood in the path that led up to the ramp.

"Wally!" Eve exclaimed.

Wally smiled and helped Eve up.

"You came back," Eve said.

"Not only that," Wally replied. "I've fulfilled my promise, Eve. I stood up to them,"

Eve smiled and embraced him in a tight hug. She was proud of him now that he had faced his fears and beaten the Flood.

Suddenly, a combat form, armed with a plasma pistol, fired a blast at the two. It missed, but hit the control pad. An alarm rang out from the fighter. Wally and Eve looked over at the fighter. Their worst fears were realised. The control pad was malfunctioning,! And it was making the ramp rise!

"C'mon!" Eve exclaimed.

Wally and Eve ran across the platform towards the fighter. They were determined to get to the fighter before the ramp closed. If that happened and they were not on the Longsword fighter, then their chance of escape was gone. Eve looked behind her to see a massive group of combat forms charge up the path towards the ramp. They probably knew what was going to happen. Even though there was little time left, the Flood were still to try and take Eve and Wally with them.

"Guys, the ramp's almost closed!" Auto said through his com in a panicked tone.

Auto was right. The gap between the ramp and the ship was getting smaller with every passing seconds. Just another two or three seconds and the two's chance of getting off Halo would be lost forever. Wally did not want that to happen.

Without thinking, Wally activated his boots and flew forward towards the ramp. He had to try and stop it from closing. However, he was not quick enough. He reached the ship, but got stuck right in between the ramp and the ship.

"WALLY!" Eve screamed.

It was horrible. The ramp and the ship were pushing against Wally with such force that even through his suit, Wally felt terrible pain. That pain was because his bones were cracking and breaking as if they were made of plastic. The pushing even caused wounds to rip open along his arms and legs and chest. Blood began to flow. Wally began coughing up blood and screamed in pain, though it was slightly gurgled because of the blood in his mouth, as he felt his ribs, his hip bone and the bones in his hands, upper legs and arms break like glass.

Finally, thankfully, after a few seconds but what seemed like forever to Eve, the ramp lowered. Wally's limp body fell onto the platform floor. Eve felt tears well up in her eyes. She rushed over to Wally and knelt down beside him. She placed one hand on the back of his head and held it a few inches up from the floor. Her other hand was on Wally's back.

"Wally!" she chocked through her gasps. "Please be okay! Please!"

Wally stirred, but also gritted his teeth. The pain was great. Even though Wally had his bodysuit, Eve's hand on Wally's back began to turn red because of the blood. Wally looked up and saw a large group of combat forms climb up onto the platform.

"Eve…" Wally managed to say. "Get out of here,"

"What?" Eve asked, unable to believe what Wally just said to her.

"Go," Wally gasped as it became harder for him to breathe. "I'll…I'll hold…them off. Get off…Halo. Save yourself."

"I'm not leaving you behind," Eve protested. "You've saved me. Without you, I wouldn't be here. You need to come back to Earth with me,"

"No," Wally replied as he tried to lift himself up from the floor. "Go. Just go,"

"But…" Eve said.

"GO!" Wally shouted.

Before Eve could protest, Wally grabbed her and threw Eve into the ship. Eve landed on the floor that led from the ramp up to the cog pit. Eve looked up and saw Wally, who was standing on his two legs but it was obvious he was really weak and could not stand up for long, place a hand on the control pad. The ramp lifted up from the ground to seal Eve off from the platform. As the last few inches of space shortened, Wally looked into Eve's eyes one more time.

"E…Eve," he said weakly.

The pain in his legs was so great. Wally just wanted it to go away, but he was not going to fail on telling Eve something since he first knew what they meant.

"I love you,"

The ramp closed. Eve got up and tried to open the ramp but it was no use.

"Eve," Auto said. "We have to go. We have just twenty seconds left."

Eve did not want to leave Wally. She wanted to be with him. Tears fell down her face. But Auto was right, they had to go.

Eve got up and ran up the corridor towards the cog pit. She ran up to the control panel and placed a hand on a scanning device. She then pushed a switch forward next to the scanning device before sitting down in one of the two seats. The fighter shook as the engines burst to life. The craft rose several feet up into the air. Wally, who, despite the terrible pain, was kneeling down on the platform facing the hanger exit, looked up and watched as the fighter flew off out of the hanger and into the sky. Wally smiled as the pain suddenly disappeared from him. Eve was free. He turned to see the combat forms just a few metres away. He closed his eyes and got ready for his death. The longsword fighter flew off into the sky towards space. Behind it, the Axiom witnessed Halo's landscape once more before an explosion tore through the back of the ship. A large pillar of smoke rose from the ship as Eve's fighter disappeared into the sky.

A few seconds later, the fighter flew out of the clouds into the darkness of space. The trillions of stars became visible. They lit up the dark sky.

Suddenly, a bright light lit up space around Halo. The reason; an explosion on the bottom of the ring. Then, a ling of ring shockwave flew out from the bottom of the ring and stretched through space until it hit the many mixed surfaces of the inside of the ring. Then, Halo began to break apart. Eve could see the cracks forming as Halo was quickly torn apart.

In the cog pit, a small holographic screen lit up from the control panel. In red letters it said Engine temp critical.

"Shut them down, we'll need them later," Auto said to Eve, who pressed a button on the control panel.

The engines turned off, leaving the fighter drifting through space. Eve sighed.

"Fancy a look?" Auto asked her.

Eve got up from her seat and walked over to the cog pit window. She looked at Halo. The ring had shattered into many sections. The large pieces drifted away from where they once were. One piece from the bottom of the ring spun round wildly as it flew up towards the top of the ring. It collided with another section of the ring, splitting it in two. The two large pieces spun off into the darkness of space in a cloud of fire, smoke and dust.

Halo had been destroyed.

Eve turned round and sat back down into the seat. Auto sighed.

"Eve," he said. "I'm really sorry. Wally was a really good friend. But we did what we had to do, for Earth. The Covenant armada that followed us has mostly been destroyed, the Flood have been destroyed and we've saved the galaxy by destroying Halo."

"Maybe so," Eve replied weakly. "But everyone that has been like family to me. Everyone that I've known since I've joined the E.R and the task force. They're gone. Wally saved me. He stuck by me and protected me no matter what. And he finally sacrificed his life to save mine,"

"Eve…" Auto began.

Eve squeezed her shoulder. Auto's voice was cut off completely as the data cord rose up from her shoulder. Eve then took the data cord in her hands and placed it on the control panel in front of her. Eve then buried her face in her hands. Wally. The one person, who had stuck by her to protect her and guide her through Halo's dangers and had finally sacrificed his life to save hers, was dead.

As the fighter drifted off away from Halo, the ruins of the once mighty world continued to break apart into small sections, becoming separate from being one.


End file.
